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Keyword: diatoms

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  • The green snot taking over the world's rivers

    10/05/2014 10:23:12 AM PDT · by WhiskeyX · 23 replies
    BBC ^ | 2014 | Larry O'Hanlon
    A strange green organism has spread around the globe, clogging up the world's rivers It began with a few small strange patches of slime, clinging to the rocks of the Heber River in Canada. Within a year, the patches had become thick, blooming mats. Within a few years the mats had grown into a giant green snot. And within a few decades this snot had spread around the world, clogging up rivers as far away as South America, Europe and Australasia. This snot, which is still flourishing today, is caused by a microscopic alga, a diatom that goes by its...
  • Decline of carbon dioxide-gobbling plankton coincided with ancient global cooling

    01/07/2009 5:35:26 PM PST · by neverdem · 7 replies · 637+ views
    Chronicle Online ^ | Jan. 7, 2009 | Hugh Powell
    NOAA/Gordon Taylor Diatoms are abundant oceanic plankton that remove billions of tons of carbon dioxide from the air each year. Their evolutionary history needs to be rewritten, according to a new Cornell study. The evolutionary history of diatoms -- abundant oceanic plankton that remove billions of tons of carbon dioxide from the air each year -- needs to be rewritten, according to a new Cornell study. The findings suggest that after a sudden rise in species numbers, diatoms abruptly declined about 33 million years ago -- trends that coincided with severe global cooling. The study is published in the...