Algae bloom in Hawaii

[Gene Shinn]

The report of algae on coral reefs in Hawaii was interesting..especially
the comment by Windy Wiltse (EPA) in one of the newspaper website articles.
"But that doesn't fit with what's being seen this year, so apparently it's
not related to rainfall and runoff."  So runoff and rain the ruling
paradigms were not the cause?
   Did anyone out there notice the three huge Asian dust events that passed
over the area in late April and May?. The dust storms crossed the Pacific
and one blocked out the sun in Denver and then passed on out into the
Atlantic. It is known that Asian dust nurishes the Hawaian rainforest
(Chadwick, O. A., Derry, L. A., Vitousek, P. M., Huebert, B. J., and Hedin,
L. O., Changing sources of nutrients during four million years of ecosystem
development. Nature, 397, 491-497, 1999) If Asian dust brings nutrients to
Hawian rainforests could it also stimulate marine algae growth..Nutrients
and iron in dust can stimulate phytoplankton growth..a la Martin etc.
  So is it possible that this algal event is the result of increasing
desertification and ever larger dust storms that start in China? Gene
for more see http://www.gsfc.nasa.gov/GSFC/EARTH/Toms/microbespics.htm and
other nasa websites that track dust.



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http://coastal.er.usgs.gov/african_dust/
|
E. A. Shinn
email  eshinn at usgs.gov
USGS Center for Coastal Geology     |
600 4th St. South                   | voice  (727) 803-8747 x3030
St.Petersburg, FL  33701            | fax    (727) 803-2032
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