Sea and algae - (Aug/29/2005 )

Hi,

i have some questions :

1. What is determine the color of the sea in some area the sea blue and other place green? is it depend on algae?

2. Is the algae under plant kingdom and why?

3. Last day i saw film about virus that they can extracted virus from cold dead human tissue (30 years ago this human die) and not from dead tissue which exposue to the sun, so i want to know how virus still live in cold dead tissue.

Hi

Sea colour usually depends on the substrate below it and the amount of light reflected off that and the water. For example, if you go to hill or cliff top near a sandy beach you can see the shelf where the water gets deeper, by a transition to a deep blue from a light blue. If you are out on the deep ocean , the water is almost invariably a deep/dark blue colour. Homer the author of the Odyssey and Illiad described this as "the wine dark sea"

Algae are classified as plants as the are photoautotrophs, i.e produce sugars from sunlight and CO2 as well as having a range of structures that are specific to plants such as a particular type of cell wall.

You can keep viruses quite well in the freezer (preferably -80) for an indefinite period of time, especially if they are inside a cell when frozen.

Bob

Well, the sea colour is determined by the colour of the sky (which is blue) in case the water is deep. It's seen green if, as you said, it's got algae growing in it.

I'm not sure if they are classified as plants

Viruses, or any microbe, when frozen to such a low temperature undergo microbiostasis (growth of microbs stops). Their metabolic activites are halted and growth and division is also arrested. This is the reason why we refrigerate or freeze our food.