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Project Noah Nature School
Urospora sp.
Urospora is a genus of green algae in the family Ulotrichaceae.
Spotted on driftwood on the beach at Point No Point County Park.
Spotted on Feb 24, 2019
Submitted on Mar 5, 2019
8 Comments
I know its over the top and ridiculously long. I think you summed it up nicely Neil. I did find a paragraph where it mentioned that Urospora species can survive more than 20 days of air exposure.
Brian, this is deep. Some of the terminology I don't know, but it indicates many algae species can adapt quite easily between aquatic and aeroterrestrial habitats, but regular desiccation leading to dehydration of the cells being the biggest problem. Many species are readily adaptable from a saltwater to freshwater environment, so much so that some have become weeds. Other than that, they mention so many different types of algae that I don't know whether I'm Arthur or Martha.
That is epic! Thanks, Brian. It's well after midnight here so I'll check it out later today :)
Neil - I found this article (an abstract) that probably will not fully answer your question but it will help in the understanding of some of the underlying mysteries involved. https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/article...
Absolutely Neil! I have seen other examples here where seaweeds where growing at high tide levels or splash zones. But it is also easy to be deceived from the new arrivals (driftwood) from storm surges.
As I asked the question, I was thinking that there might still be enough moisture and salt in the air, seeing the spotting was on the beach. Rain would also provide moisture, which you seem to have an abundance of in the NW, but enough salt water from ocean spray would airborne to sustain the algae in a near-familiar environment. A hypothesis to start the ball rolling, yeah?
Neil I'm so glad you asked. To give your question the answer it deserves I'll have to do more research (which I love to do anyway). I also thought it was interesting how far out of the water it was, but it was low tide and this could be a new arrival to the beach. Most likely this algae is one of the links in the evolutionary process between terrestrial and sea plants. I also wonder how much climate change (i.e. global warming) is having an effect?
This is an interesting spotting. Does the algae survive for long out of its salt water environment? It looks to be thriving here. Cheers for sharing, Brian.