Light Attenuation Curves show the correlation between depth and light penetration. All colors have varying wavelengths that are completely absorbed at different depths. The above graph illustrates that the color red has the longest wavelength and is completely absorbed at the shallowest depth. Wavelength and  light intensity are indirectly proportional.

Red Tide

This is an article that discusses the correlation between Fe-chelates and growth of red tide algae. "Moreover, microbial siderophores may play an important role in controlling the uptake of iron complexed with organic materials that exist in coastal water and the formation of red tides in coastal areas." This correlation can be used to perhaps investigate ways to control the presence of these siderophores that could possible lead to a reduction in red tides. More must be learned about the causation and prevention of red tides as much is still a mystery, although this is a start.
"Complexation of Iron by Microbial Siderophores and Effects of Iron Chelates on the Growth of Marine Microalgae Causing Red Tides" by Kanako Naito, Ichiro Imai and Hiroyuki Nakahara from Laboratory of Marine Environmental Microbiology in Phycological Research 2008.

Phytoremediation- Contaminant Cycle

Phytoremediation is a great alternative to traditional methods of removing contaminants from soil. Traditional ways include either digging up the contaminated soil and hauling it away to a waste site or applying chemicals to the soil. Phytoremediation uses plants that are harvested for their ability to extract contaminants, specifically metals, from the soil and store them in their leaves and shoots. A different species of plant can be used to clean up oil spills and polluted groundwater by microbes in the root system breaking down petroleum compounds as well as PHA's into nontoxic substance that makes the soil usable once again. Other applications for these plants would be as indicators for contaminants in the soil as they change appearance in the presence of contaminants. 
"Cleaning Up Contaminants With Plants" by Jennifer Cutraro from Purdue University

El Nino/ La Nina

This article describes the effects of these two weather patterns on river flow. The flooding caused by El Nino threatens the river as a habitat because all the pollutants in the surrounding watershed are washed into the river with the help of urbanization and an abundance of impervious surfaces. During the droughts of the La Nina season, water levels are low and the ground water, with a high nitrogen concentration from fertilizers, is the main body of water flowing into the aquifer. When not in drought season, the river water would dillute this high nitrogen concentration to normal levels.
"El Nino-La Nina Events, Precipitation, Flood-Drought Events, and Their Environmental Impacts on the Suwanee River Watershed, Florida" by Hongsheng Cao in Envionmental Geosciences

Making Hypsographic Curve from Bathymetric Map

Bathymetric maps show the contours of a body of water. They illustrate the location of changing depths. From a bathymetric map, a hypsographic curve can be calculated to show the correlation betweem depth and area as well as depth and volume. The x-axis is placed on top with depths increasing vertically downwards to provide  a better visual of the body of water below sea level.

In class we calculated the area of a sample lake by creating a scale of square area which we could mass and then compare to the masses of each individual contour. This data produced the following hypsographic curve:

Next, to get the volume of the lake at each depth, we took an average area of the the upper and lower levels and then multiplied by our conversion factor from our scale (.103g = 10,000m^2.. so conversion factor is 10000/.103). This data produced  the following hypsographic curve:

The total volume of the lake is 820,730 m^3.


The following are useful resources for learning how to read bathymetric maps and  how to construct and interpret a hypsographic curve.

Coast of Chile

This is a coastal beach of Chile. It'd be cool to study the coast of South America because I want to one day work there doing habitat conservation.

An article about an abundance of giant squid on the Chilean coast because of changing ocean temperatures:

http://www.esa.int/esaEO/SEMVNJYV1SD_index_0.html