Episode Transcript
Welcome to Faith in Science. I'm Dr. John Ashton.
At the present time, there's quite a bit of research going on in the area of algae in terms terms of investigating algae as food sources, particularly sources of protein and other nutrients. And one of the universities I've been involved with are looking at ways in which we can optimise the growth of algae to real growth here. One of the common algae that people are looking at, of course, is kelp.
That's a giant algae. When I lived in Tasmania for a while, we lived quite near where there were, or we had some land near where there were some very large kelp beds. And, yeah, it's quite an amazing plant.
We'd see a lot of it washed up on the beaches. And of course, even near where I live now, we occasionally get kelp washed up on the beaches here. That's a very large plant.
There's very small algae as well. And one of those algae are called cochalithophores, and it's spelt. And I'll spell it out for you because it's a tricky spelling and I often get mixed up myself.
But it's coccolithophores, or running through, again, coccolithophores. Now, if you look those up on Wikipedia or in a science book, some of the images are amazing of these tiny little unicellular algae. So these are among the smallest of the algae.
They're a marine algae, so they leave and grow in salt water, and they have a unique little flagellum like structure, or a little sort of like, propeller type structure that moves them along. So it relates to their swimming, but also to how they can capture particles. Now, one of the outstanding features of cocolithophores is that they absorb the calcium in the seawater and excrete it as a calcium carbonate exoskeleton, which means that they're the smallest skeletons in the marine world.
They're really tiny little, really small creatures. But there's about 200 species of this form of algae that live in the oceans. And of course, they're part of plankton, which constitutes 98% of the living biomass in oceans.
So the other 2% is the animals that we can see macroscopically that we don't need a microscope for, like crabs and fish and whales and octopuses and all these sort of things, seashells and this sort of thing. So they're really tiny little creatures. And it's interesting, when you think about the role that algae plays, that it's 98% of the biomass in the oceans.
Now, one of the fascinating things about cochalithophores is that they have an essential role in the global carbon cycle through photosynthesis, and as I mentioned earlier, through calcification. So these algae reduce the amount of carbon dioxide in the atmosphere by converting carbon dioxide, water and minerals into oxygen, an organic matter, and also into calcium carbonate by calcification. So in other words, they're trapping the carbon dioxide in the atmosphere, taking it in, and as I said, with water, they're releasing oxygen.
And then that carbon dioxide becomes part of the calcium carbonate, which is the little shell on these cocalithophores. It's interesting, of course, that the cocolithophores and the rest of the phytoplankton form the basis of the marine food chain, and they're responsible for about half of the global primary production of oxygen. And so, in effect, they're more important to our atmosphere than all of the earth's rainforests.
I thought that's a fascinating thing, isn't it, really, that this plankton in the oceans produces a huge amount of the oxygen that we need more than all the rainforest. Now, one of the things is, of course, we're clearing massive amounts of rainforest, but we need to remember that bushes, grass, pasture, all these living organisms, these plants are producing oxygen for us. And so that's why it's very important that we maintain that.
It's interesting, too. I remember seeing a documentary, I think it's called kiss the ground or kiss the earth. And in that they showed the effect of pasture and the growth in summer, particularly in the northern hemisphere, on the levels of carbon dioxide in the atmosphere.
And of course, when spring comes and the crops begin to grow, the leaves reappear on the trees and so forth, there's a significant immeasurable drop in the carbon dioxide levels in the atmosphere in those areas. It's quite amazing. And I think this is really quite important as we consider the lot of people are very concerned about global warming at the moment.
And I think we can see from measurements that we are going through a cycle where the earth's temperature overall is increasing. And we do know that the carbon dioxide levels in the atmosphere are increasing. And this raises some concerns for people.
But one of the things that I look at from this perspective is that as the temperature is warm and we get these warmer temperatures, we're going to have increased evaporation and precipitation, and we're likely to see more rainfall, particularly in desert areas and drier areas. And that was predicted many years ago. And of course, we're seeing that at the present time in Australia, which has massive amount of desert, very low rainfall areas all through central Australia, and they've been receiving the best rainfall for many, many years and in some areas on record in central Australia.
And so this can make these whole areas, vast areas of desert, more productive. Also, we know in the past in northern Europe and this sort of things, the climate was much warmer. I think I've mentioned before too, that we have records in the past that it was certainly much warmer in the past in many regions of the world.
And so in my mind, this is just my own personal opinion that the global warming effect is part of a cycle. And I don't think it's something that we should be so alarmed about. Now, that's a different issue from saying, well, as humans, we need to be taking care of the environment.
Matter of fact, God reminds us, as John was inspired, wrote in the book of revelation, in chapter eleven, at the end of chapter eleven, that God will destroy those that destroy the earth at the judgement. And so it's a very important thing to understand that, and particularly as christians, we need to be stewards of the environment and of our planet. And one of the things there is looking at management and in particular preserving the forests.
Recently I've seen some pictures of how huge some of the trees were in the past that were cut down by our forebears. I think I've mentioned it before, that here in Australia and the east coast, the massive cedar forests that were here, the trees were huge, huge. And of course, you see the remnants of some of the huge trees in the United States.
I think in some of the national parks, they're so large that you could cut a hole in the bottom of the tree and drive a car through. And so these giant trees have grown in the past and they've been largely cut out. And we know we have massive concerns now as massive amounts of rainforests have been cleared, particularly in Madagascar, being cleared in New guinea, being cleared in South America.
And this is certainly concerned because these massive trees produce huge amounts of oxygen and they also take up the carbon dioxide. But on the other hand, we know that from the coal, the coal comes from vegetation that existed in the past. And obviously there were massive amounts of vegetation that existed in the past.
We have these massive coal seams all around the world that are remnants of the forests that were destroyed during the massive volcanic activity that occurred during the flood, during Noah's flood, when there was a massive catastrophic event occurred on the surface of the earth. It was a supernatural event, of course, as God records and many cultures around the world record the global flood record, that at that time man had grown extremely wicked and that God eliminated much of wicked mankind at that time. It's interesting that this has been recorded in pre christian, pre Judeo cultures such as the American Indians and so forth, in their cultures around the world.
And, of course, if you're interested in this, you can read about. I have a section on this in my book, evolution impossible, that deals with the historical evidence for the flood. And so I think a lot of people are concerned about the higher carbon dioxide levels in the atmosphere at the moment, but that promotes plant growth.
Our plants are going to grow much better, much more rapidly under these conditions. And as they grow, they produce more oxygen as well. So there's a whole cycle here they're only beginning to understand.
And it's interesting that these cocolithophores and as I said before, and the rest of phytoplankton form the basis of this marine food chain, but they're also responsible for about half of the global primary oxygen production. And again, as you think about, more important than the rainforests. And so this is something that is very important to bear in mind.
And I'll talk a little bit more about this, how there's some amazing feedback cycles that scientists are still working out we still don't fully understand. I guess one of the reasons I'm saying this is that it seems that there's a lot of fear being generated, particularly young people, about global warming. Now, in my personal view, is that we need to concentrate on some of the other areas of pollution.
In other words, we pour a whole lot of waste into our ocean. Our oceans are acidified by carbon dioxide, but they're also acidified. And that can be part of a natural cycle.
But they're also acidified by a lot of wastes, sulfuric acid, industrial waste and other materials, effluents flowing into the oceans that are acidic. We have the clearing of rainforests and the mismanagement of forests. I think that is very significant.
The overuse of plastics and the dumping of these sort of things that change and affect our ecosystems and all the things that poison our oceans. I think this is so important. They're the areas that we really, in my view, need to cut back on.
And the fact that we generate so much waste. We've developed a whole culture of consumerism whereby we make these things that are of very poor quality and then we throw them away. But anyway, I don't want to get too much involved in that.
But I think that there are very important environmental issues that we need to look at that involve pollution and air quality, the role of plastics, all these sort of things are also very, very important issues and perhaps play a much more significant role in an actual fact. If the earth's temperature does warm slightly, it may bring better rainfall to a lot of desert areas, provide more opportunity to grow food in those areas, and also moderate the climates in the very extremes where it's very cold at the moment and we can't grow food because it's so cold. And so we need to remember there are a lot of feedback loops and so forth.
Environmental. Obviously, some environmental scientists will make an issue of particular species that are likely to become extinct and this sort of thing as things warm. From my reading, what will happen is there'll be just gradual shifts in location and we do a lot more damage to the environment by transporting species and introducing species and clearing land ourselves than is likely to happen through a slight decrease in temperature with, with global warming.
And I remember doing some calculations some time ago that if all the coal deposits in the world were burnt and convert to carbon dioxide, that the amount of global warming would only be quite minimal, really in the order of a degree or two, max. Now, I'm not saying that there aren't other factors that come into it, but that was my calculation. And one of the things that need to bear in mind is the role that cocolithophores can play in moderating climate.
So let's have a little bit of looking at use. So these algae possess a very small ecoskeleton made of multiple scales. And this ecoskeleton, or cocosphere, that covers the cell, is made by an inner layer of organic body scales and an outer layer of minuscule calcite plates.
So calcites form of calcium carbonate, and they're called, as I said, cocoliths. And the cocolis and the organic scales are secreted internally within the cell and then extruded to the surface of the cell, where they form this protective colouring. And again, I suggest, go on to Wikipedia, or just Google kirkalithophores and go on to images and you'll see some amazing structures.
Absolutely fascinating and really beautiful structures. They're of extraordinary design. And although there are other microalgae that form exoskeletons, the cocolis are distinct and unique.
They possess remarkably small shells in between five to ten microns. And they're also called, some of the times, they're called nanoplankton as well, because they're so small. And of course, we find fossil records of these, so they go back a long, long time.
One of the fascinating things is that the wide range of shapes. So you can get a star or rose or spindle, or it can be a pentagon or conical. And a lot of them have quite exceptional geometric attributes with pentagonal scales and so forth.
Some of them form do decahedrons. It's quite amazing. And these little skeletons, as I said, can be in the order of just ten micrometres across.
And remember, a micrometre is 1000th of a millimetre. So they're quite fascinating little creatures, or little plants, really, that are living there in the ocean. Now, these scales, these little calcite scales, are thought to perform several functions for the organism.
But there's still debate, scientists are still studying this. And some of the suggested functions relate to protection. Some are involved in flotation, some involved in light regulation, and others in biochemical balance.
So remember, these little creatures they use the sunlight is involved, so they possess chlorophyll, and they utilise sunlight via photosystems to catalyse the conversion of carbon dioxide and water into oxygen and so forth, and forming the carbonate. And one of the hypotheses that has really caught the attention of one scientist. And there's a really, really good article, or good chapter on cocolithophores that's been published in the book Design and Catastrophe: 51 Scientists Explore Evidence in Nature.
So it's a book I've referred to recently, a few times, published by Andrews University Press, and the author of the article, Dr. Emilia Belia, B-E-L-I-A. She talks about that. One of the things that has really captured her attention in particular is the flotational buoyancy function of these little plates, these little scales on the outside of the cell, for the cell. And so the algae need to maintain their position within the photic zone and the ocean, so they have to have access to sunlight and they have to be able to control their rate of sinking and flotation. And so she actually uses an illustration.
She said, imagine a person wearing a wingsuit and falling from a high cliff, and then parachuting when approaching the land. And so the shape of the wingsuit and the parachute resembles the shape of the cocholynths. And the fluid in our example, of course, would be air instead of water.
So it's proposed that the actual shape and structure of these little plates gives greater control over the sinking rates. And it's really a simple illustration illustrating the importance of design. So you've got these little plates there that form these calcite plates that form this outer shell.
But they actually play an important role in the algae being able to maintain that position in the photogrytium so they can absorb the sunlight. It's interesting that the whole design of the cocholiths plays an important role, or is an important for the role of the calithophores as cocolithophores as part of the marine ecosystem. And they're discovering a whole lot more of the role of these little, tiny little algae species that few of us would see.
And you really need to see them under a microscope. And one of the other fascinating things is that, of course, that cocolithophores help in regulating the temperature of the oceans, in that they really thrive in warm seas. And so you can have an algal bloom.
But when that happens, they release also a compound, dimethyl sulphide dms. This is released into the air, and the nuclei of these particles help produce thicker clouds, which then block out the sun. And then when the oceans cool, the number of cocoliferores decrease, and the amounts of clouds then also decrease.
So when there are fewer clouds blocking the sun, the temperature also rises. And so this is a fascinating cycle in nature that helps regulate the control of the temperature of the oceans, and hence the temperature of the earth. And for those that might be interested in that, it's a fascinating article that appeared in the journal Nature.
It was called oceanic phytoplankton, atmospheric sulphur, cloud albedo and climate. And it was published in Nature back in 1987. Issue number 326, pages 655 to 661.
So that is in nature back in 1987. Issue number 326, pages six five five to six six one. The author was Robert J. Carlson, and then, of course, James Lovelock and a number of other authors there. Fascinating article on how the role of algae in maintaining the temperature cycle of the oceans. And this is still being investigated.
Scientists are still having a debate over the role. As we've mentioned before, people are very concerned about the increase in carbon dioxide it's absorbed into the oceans. When it does that, it makes the oceans more acidic.
But the data is ambivalent as to, okay, does this increase or decrease the amount of carbonate or calcium carbonate and carbon dioxide takeup that the cocolithopores take up? So it's fascinating there. They're fascinating creatures, and they just point powerfully to supernatural design by a supernatural creator. It's created these organisms not only to produce oxygen for us, but also to help maintain the temperature of the oceans, some fascinating cycles there.
I believe this is also powerful evidence for an amazing creator of all these systems. And remember, if you want to listen to other of these programmes, just google 3abnaustralia.org.au all one word and click on the listen button and go to Faith and Science.
I'm Dr. John Ashton. Have a great day.
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