Oceanography
Title: Dinoflagellates
Information: I have noticed tiny phosphorescent sparks at the beach either in the sand or on the waves. Someone told me it was a phenomenon called "Phosphorescent Tide." Could you give me more information about this? The glowing you have seen is caused by a large number of bioluminescent (glowing) algae in the water. I started with the search engine Google at: http://www.google.com and did a search for: phosphorescent tide ocean science When I realized the term that would work best was bioluminescent, I changed my search term and got some really interesting sites. Glow with the Flow from the Scripps Institution for Oceanography http://www.sio.ucsd.edu/explorations/biolum/ http://siobiolum.ucsd.edu/Biolum_intro.html The Monterey Bay Aquarium Research Institute http://www.mbari.org/~conn/botany/dinos/alimon/biolumin.htm Includes photographs, drawing and answers to questions about bioluminescence and dinoflagellates More about Bioluminescence from the Harbor Branch Oceanographic Institute http://www.biolum.org/ The Bioluminescence Web Page http://lifesci.ucsb.edu/~biolum/ Contains more information about bioluminescence. Includes color photos, myths/facts, etc. There are some really cool photos here: http://www.biobay.com/ To find additional information on this topic, ask the librarian at your public or school library to direct you to the marine biology section for other books, magazine articles, and even multimedia material on CD-ROMs on this topic. This was a very interesting question. Best wishes, AskNSDL Staff last updated Sept. 30, 2004
Category: Oceanography