STRANGE CONTINENT
GLACIER IN THE PINK
The snow of the Italian Presena glacier in Trentino province, some 2,600m (8,530ft) above sea-level, has turned pink. The novel coloration is due to the presence of singlecell algæ, which, scientists have suggested, accelerate the melting of ice. “The algæ are not dangerous. It is a completely natural phenomenon which often happens in spring and summer,” said Biagio Di Mauro of the Italian Research Council. Several north Italian lakes also change colour most years when certain species of algæ bloom. Spiegel online, 6 July 2020.
MYSTERY FISH DEATHS
A mass die-off of herring in the German North Sea has puzzled experts. At the end of June, hundreds of herring were washed ashore at several places on the coast in Schleswig-Holstein and Lower Saxony, especially at Büsum, Eiderstedt, Nordstrand, and Cuxhaven. Biologist Rainer Borcherding of the Environmental Monitoring Station Wadden Sea explained that herring normally fled water temperatures of 20° to go to deeper and colder water, but thought it possible the younger animals had come into contact with poisonous algæ. Among the dead.
