Green Tides

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Encyclopedia of Ocean Engineering

Synonyms

Green macroalgal blooms; Green seaweed tides

Definition

Green tides are ecological disasters in which massive biomass of one or multiple green seaweed species accumulates in either shallow coastal or open waters, forming drifting canopies and harming the local environment and ecosystem.

Scientific Fundamentals

Green tides are vast accumulations of unattached green macroalgae in either coastal or open waters, causing significant detrimental environmental impacts. As a type of harmful algal blooms (HABs), green tides differ from the other HABs (e.g., red tides, brown tides, and golden tides) obviously with the blooming species, which are predominated by one or multiple green macroalga species. Green microalgae or cyanobacteria blooms (e.g. microcystis blooms in Taihu Lake, China), although, in green color, are blooms of single-cell microalgae, which do not fall into the category of green tides. The green tide is increasing globally, especially along the coasts of America,...

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Correspondence to Jie **ao .

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**ao, J., Wang, Z., Zhang, X. (2021). Green Tides. In: Cui, W., Fu, S., Hu, Z. (eds) Encyclopedia of Ocean Engineering. Springer, Singapore. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-981-10-6963-5_313-1

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  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/978-981-10-6963-5_313-1

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