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Many times, stand hikers have seen large amounts of foam washed up / blown away during a walk along the stand, and may have wondered where the foam came from.
Were somewhere too large quantities of washing powder or similar chemicals discharged or drained from ships?
And why does the foam secrete an unpleasant foul sulfurous odor after a short time?
The odor is caused by the release of dimethyl sulfide.
The tiny, single-celled foam alga Phaeocystis globosa (one cell is just 4my = 0.004 millimeters in size) and occurs in colonies with a diameter of 0.5cm to 2.0 cm.
Under certain conditions (water temperature, salinity, PH-value) and in eutrophic waters, a sudden and initially unchecked growth occurs, a so-called algal bloom.
The small algae, which contain yellow-brown chloroplasts, are protected by an envelope of gelatin, and are an important component of the phytoplankton. The unicellular organisms are a suitable morsel for ciliates in the food chain, for example,
When the algae die, the sea water partially turns greenish-brown, and a kind of slippery foam (resembling ice snow when baking) is formed by the influence of the wind and the wave action, which is blown onto the beach.
The mountains of foam form after the algae bloom - usually in spring, but also on these cold November days in 2022, the algae pile up on the North Sea, as reported by the visitor center of Norderney Watt-Welten on Facebook.
The death of the algae is triggered by viruses.
Phaeocystis globosa is now considered a cosmopolitan, the alga goes through two different stages during its lifetime, an immobile stage in spherical, smooth colonies and a motile stage similar to the alga Phaeocystis pouchetii.
The alga is not toxic, but can still be very harmful, as its algal blooms result in dramatic ecosystem changes and negative impacts on fisheries and fish farming. Thus, they cause significant economic losses in aquaculture fisheries and shellfish aquaculture, and are also responsible for large-scale fish kills, net clogging and the resulting consequences
All of these impacts are primarily due to a life cycle that alternates between solitary cells and gelatinous colonial stages in which hundreds or thousands of cells are embedded in a polysaccharide matrix.
In late November 2021, a large-scale Phaeocystis bloom erupted for the first time in the southern Yellow Sea of China, dominated by huge colonies, covering an area of up to 1,543 km² (estimate from the North Sea Forecast Center of State Oceanic Administration, China).
Despite the existing knowledge, scientists are convinced that all mysteries surrounding the alga Phaeocystis globosa are far from being solved.
Were somewhere too large quantities of washing powder or similar chemicals discharged or drained from ships?
And why does the foam secrete an unpleasant foul sulfurous odor after a short time?
The odor is caused by the release of dimethyl sulfide.
The tiny, single-celled foam alga Phaeocystis globosa (one cell is just 4my = 0.004 millimeters in size) and occurs in colonies with a diameter of 0.5cm to 2.0 cm.
Under certain conditions (water temperature, salinity, PH-value) and in eutrophic waters, a sudden and initially unchecked growth occurs, a so-called algal bloom.
The small algae, which contain yellow-brown chloroplasts, are protected by an envelope of gelatin, and are an important component of the phytoplankton. The unicellular organisms are a suitable morsel for ciliates in the food chain, for example,
When the algae die, the sea water partially turns greenish-brown, and a kind of slippery foam (resembling ice snow when baking) is formed by the influence of the wind and the wave action, which is blown onto the beach.
The mountains of foam form after the algae bloom - usually in spring, but also on these cold November days in 2022, the algae pile up on the North Sea, as reported by the visitor center of Norderney Watt-Welten on Facebook.
The death of the algae is triggered by viruses.
Phaeocystis globosa is now considered a cosmopolitan, the alga goes through two different stages during its lifetime, an immobile stage in spherical, smooth colonies and a motile stage similar to the alga Phaeocystis pouchetii.
The alga is not toxic, but can still be very harmful, as its algal blooms result in dramatic ecosystem changes and negative impacts on fisheries and fish farming. Thus, they cause significant economic losses in aquaculture fisheries and shellfish aquaculture, and are also responsible for large-scale fish kills, net clogging and the resulting consequences
All of these impacts are primarily due to a life cycle that alternates between solitary cells and gelatinous colonial stages in which hundreds or thousands of cells are embedded in a polysaccharide matrix.
In late November 2021, a large-scale Phaeocystis bloom erupted for the first time in the southern Yellow Sea of China, dominated by huge colonies, covering an area of up to 1,543 km² (estimate from the North Sea Forecast Center of State Oceanic Administration, China).
Despite the existing knowledge, scientists are convinced that all mysteries surrounding the alga Phaeocystis globosa are far from being solved.
