MRS. B.A.THAKE

Research interests

(a) Marine phytoplankton physiology and ecology. In particular: the function of dense structures such as calcite plates and silica frustules; the relationship between carbon aquisition and use in calcification and photosynthesis. Marine mucilage production especially in the Northern Adriatic Sea: the relationship with estuarine chemistry and the hydrography of the plume frontal system at the mouth of the river Po.

(b) Seaweed ecophysiology: carbon aquisition mechanisms; the function of seaweed polysaccharides; calcium relations of intertidal and sub-littoral seaweeds.

(c) Applied phycology: freshwater and marine eutrophication; control of algal blooms.

Techniques used: Oxygen electrodes, continuous cultures, light and electron microscopy, heavy and radio-isotopes, NMR spectroscopy, SDS-PAGE electrophoresis, specific antibody binding.

Present Enthusiasm: Marine chemistry. The prevailing idea in marine biology is that the sea is a beneficent habitat; that life originated in it and diversified in it. Also, that marine chemistry has remained essentially constant at least since the dawn of multicellularity. It is, however, possible to hold a far more sceptical view. A glance at the composition of seawater reveals it to be pretty poisonous, and recent biogeochemical studies are showing that its composition has changed dramatically over the past 550 million years. Some of the work with marine phytoplankton at QMW is concentrating on the cytoxicity of calcium and the ways in which the algae deal with it.