Welcome to the Ecophysiolog!

Welcome! I created this blog to put in writing some thoughts on the science behind domestic, local and, on occasion, global ecological matters. I am a biological physicist/mathematical biologist in the field of algal biofluids. I research the individual and collective biased swimming dynanics of microscopic bacteria and algae. To put the last sentence in plain English, I am a scientist who studies the motion of single celled green algae (phytoplankton) and bacteria in fluids, and their responses (taxes) to environmental cues like light, food, gravity, flow etc.. For example, the skewed mass distribution inside some swimming green algae such as Chlamydomonas or Dunaliella causes them to focus in plumes (see picture below), a responseknown as gyrotaxis.

picture left (by O. A. Croze [me!], ABBL): macroscopically, the swimming gives rise to this beautiful pattern in a small petri dish. video right (by S. O'Malley and O. A. Croze, ABBL): a high speed video of the alga Dunaliella salina swimming. The picture and video were taken at the Algae Biofuels and Biofluids Lab (ABBL) at the University of Glasgow.

My research could have interesting implications for understanding plankton blooms in the Ocean (see the spectacular image below of a Coccolithophore bloom near Ireland) and also the processing of swimming algae to make products, such the nutrient supplement and dye Beta-carotene and, it is hoped, biodiesel and hydrogen. Algal biofuel technologies are not mature yet, but understanding the strange behaviour of fluids of swimming algae could help.

My current work with algae is connected to renewable energy, since there is the prospect of using these cells to make biodiesel and even hydrogen, but also for the formation of plankton blooms of swimming algae in the ocean.

picture left (Wagenigen University): a pilot raceway pond algal bioreactore at Wagenigen University in the Netherlands. picture right (NASA/GSFC) plankton blooms around the British Isles and North West France. The patches you see off the coast of England and Ireland are blooms of the species E. huxleyi a coccolithophore with a hard shell (that doesn't swim: not all microalgae do!).

In this blog, I will talk about my research, but in the main I hope to investigate the science behind ecological issues such as recycling, public transport or energetic self-sufficiency on a domestic or local scale. My musings hope to be be educational and should benefit anyone interested in debunking some green living myths or dilemmas (such as "should I wash my plastic bottles and cans before recycling them?", or questions like "why can't all types of plastic be recycled at my local bin/centre?". I will approach these issues from a scientific standpoint.