Algae Or Humans: Which Will Destroy The Planet First?

Published on September 13, 2016
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Algae has caused mass extinction, fatal pooping, dead zones, and hurt companies that depend on drinkable water, but not all algae are bad!

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Previous Episode:

What The Crap Is Algae Anyway?:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=vo8c8dxy__U

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Are all algal blooms harmful?:
http://oceanservice.noaa.gov/facts/habharm.html

“Less than one percent of algal blooms actually produce toxins. Harmful algal blooms are blooms of species of algae that can have negative impacts on humans, marine and freshwater environments, and coastal economies.”

How Plants Helped Make the Earth Unique:
http://www.livescience.com/18254-plants-extinction-climate-change-rivers.html

“Plants have helped shape our planet. New research indicates the first arrivals on land not only helped alter nutrient cycles, but contributed to one of Earth’s mass extinctions. And as plants evolved, so did rivers, creating more habitats for green things and the animals that followed.”

Ordovician-Silurian mass extinction:
http://www.bbc.co.uk/nature/extinction_events/Ordovician%E2%80%93Silurian_extinction_event

“The third largest extinction in Earth’s history, the Ordovician-Silurian mass extinction had two peak dying times separated by hundreds of thousands of years. During the Ordovician, most life was in the sea, so it was sea creatures such as trilobites, brachiopods and graptolites that were”

What are harmful algae?:
http://hab.ioc-unesco.org/index.php?option=com_content&view=article&id=5&Itemid=16

“Phytoplankton blooms, micro-algal blooms, toxic algae, red tides, or harmful algae, are all terms for naturally occurring phenomena. About 300 hundred species of micro algae are reported at times to form mass occurrence, so called blooms.”

Algal bloom:
https://www.sciencedaily.com/terms/algal_bloom.htm

“An algal bloom or marine bloom or water bloom is a rapid increase in the population of algae in an aquatic system. Algal blooms may occur in freshwater as well as marine environments.”

Scientists link nutrient pollution to coral bleaching:
http://phys.org/news/2012-09-scientists-link-nutrient-pollution-coral.html

“Too many nutrients can put corals at risk, a new study shows. Excessive nitrogen in the water affects their ability to cope with rising water temperatures and other environmental pressures, making them vulnerable to harmful bleaching.”

What is coral bleaching?:
http://oceanservice.noaa.gov/facts/coral_bleach.html

“Warmer water temperatures can result in coral bleaching. When water is too warm, corals will expel the algae (zooxanthellae) living in their tissues causing the coral to turn completely white. This is called coral bleaching. When a coral bleaches, it is not dead.”

Overgrowth Of Algae Endangers Coral Ecosystems:
http://www.redorbit.com/news/science/1112697826/coral-algae-overgrowth-endangers-ecosystems-092012/

“Overfishing and nitrate pollution can destroy coral reefs by allowing an overgrowth of algae that brings with it unwanted pathogens, chokes off oxygen and disrupts helpful bacteria. These are the findings of a new study out of the Oregon State University, published recently in PLoS One.”

Harmful Algal Blooms:
https://www.epa.gov/nutrientpollution/harmful-algal-blooms

“Harmful algal blooms are a major environmental problem in all 50 states. Known as red tides, blue-green algae or cyanobacteria, harmful algal blooms have severe impacts on human health, aquatic ecosystems and the economy.”

The Problem:
https://www.epa.gov/nutrientpollution/problem

“Nutrient pollution is one of America’s most widespread, costly and challenging environmental problems, and is caused by excess nitrogen and phosphorus in the air and water.”

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