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From: Trevor J. Kenchington (no email)
Date: Wed Nov 12 2003 - 08:21:10 EST
Fred,
Marine life, of some species, thrives at temperatures down to the
freezing point of seawater. Temperature is therefore immaterial to the
issue at hand. In any case, the Harbour is still fairly warm at the
moment -- as I can confirm from personal exposure. However, algae
(assuming that the thing in question was an alga) need sunlight. The
species living in each area are adapted to use the seasonal cycles of
sunlight available in that area (along with seasonal cycles in many
other things), while light is abundant here in high summer but getting
scarce by the autumnal equinox.
So, for the third time: In my judgement (as a professional marine
scientist), I find it a bit improbable that anything would be blooming
here in late September in sufficient abundance to produce the appearance
of continuous light (rather than individual sparks) that I saw. Not
impossible but a bit improbable.
I did not turn to this list for an education in marine biology. (Got
that at university, starting nearly 30 years ago.) I did think that
someone might be able to tell me whether there were possible
physico-chemical explanations for what I saw. Jared has said that, at
least where the water itself is concerned, there are not. If I get the
chance, I'll ask the phytoplankton types at my wife's research institute
whether they can suggest a species which might have produced the light.
Trevor Kenchington
Fred Hebard wrote:
> Trevor,
>
> I believe marine fauna are fairly common near sea ice. This implies
> that flora are there also, at the base of the food chain. Which I
> always hear about the nutrient-rich arctic waters, where the nutrients
> in questions are minerals for the flora. So algae probably are
> abundant in your harbor until it ices over. I have no idea what ice
> would do to the light intensity in the water underneath, but it might
> knock it down enough to crash algal populations. Now what it was that
> was doing bioluminescence, I do not know.
--
Trevor J. Kenchington PhD
Gadus Associates, Office(902) 889-9250
R.R.#1, Musquodoboit Harbour, Fax (902) 889-9251
Nova Scotia B0J 2L0, CANADA Home (902) 889-3555
Science Serving the Fisheries
http://home.istar.ca/~gadus
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