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The Influence upon Algal Cells of an Alteration in the Hydrogen Ion Concentration of Sea Water

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  11 May 2009

W. R. G. Atkins
W. R. G. Atkins
Affiliation:
Head of the Department of General Physiology at the Plymouth Laboratory.
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Extract

Sea water originally at pH8·2 became as alkaline as pH9·4 by the photosynthetic action of Ulva in removing carbonic acid. This degree of alkalinity did not prove injurious to Ulva, but exposure to it for two and a half hours at 27° C. sufficed to increase the permeability of the superficial cells of Ceramium rubrum irreversibly and fatally. Similar though less rapid changes brought about the death of numerous Vorticellæ epiphytic on Ceramium. The criteria for living cells were permeability to neutral red and impermeability to brom cresol purple. Dead cells do not retain neutral red specifically and are permeable to brom cresol purple.

It is suggested that the above facts have a bearing upon the distribution of these and similar algæ upon the shore.

Type
Research Article
Information
Journal of the Marine Biological Association of the United Kingdom , Volume 12 , Issue 4 , October 1922 , pp. 789 - 791
Copyright
Copyright © Marine Biological Association of the United Kingdom 1922

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References

Child, C. M. 1916. Axial susceptibility gradients in algæ. Bot. Gaz., 62.Google Scholar
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Child, C. M. 1921. The axial gradients in Hydrozoa, IV. Biol. Bull. 41, No. 2.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Gail, F. W. 1919. Hydrogen ion concentration and other factors affecting the distribution of Fucus. Publ. Puget Sound Biol. Sta., 2, 287.Google Scholar