So, tropical storm Gordon has been churning its way through the Gulf of Mexico for a couple of days, dumping a ton of rain along the west coast of Florida, along with high winds. How is all that affecting the red tide along the coast? Have the rain and winds broken things up enough to disperse the algae, or is it all just a surface disturbance that doesn’t change anything?
Just a WAG here, but I think any break up of the algae as it currently is will be more than offset by increased runoff from inland, with all the stuff that algae love to thrive on.
In the long term, I think it will exacerbate the problem.
If harmful algae thrive on nitrates and phosphates carried by river discharges, how come it’s advisable to plant forests along rivers and in the mountains where rivers originate? I’m basing this on a Japanese film documentary wherein oyster farms in Miyagi Prefecture eliminated their red tide problem by reforesting the surrounding mountains. Something about higher fulvic acid generation, and enabling good plankton to absorb nitrates and phosphates.
Just a guess but perhaps the forest is taking in the excess nitrogen. The trees would be planted but not fertilized.