Word: diatome
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...scientific voyeurism taught him little of practical value, and Dr. Fujinaga continued to spy on his prawns. After testing countless kinds of marine microorganisms, he found that during the first four days after hatching, larval kuruma prawns eat only microscopic Skeletonema costatum, a kind of diatom. When he learned how to grow his own Skeletonema in glass-covered tanks, his prawns survived their infancy. But Dr. Fujinaga could not manage to keep them alive longer than that...
Even young birds, particularly swallows, showed radioactive concentrations 500,000 times greater than normal after feeding on diatom-eating insects. Some animals, e.g., jack rabbits, were also affected after eating grass that had been irradiated, probably by particles escaping from Hanford's chimneys. None of the present radiation is dangerous, thanks to AEC precautions, but if the radioactive material in the Columbia were allowed to reach the maximum level considered safe for ordinary drinking water, fish from the river would soon be unfit for food...
...Diatoms are the grass of the waters-the major source of energy and sustenance for marine life. A few thousandths of an inch across, the diatom's jewel-like silica case encloses a drop of protoplasm. In it chlorophyll magically manufactures organic matter out of sunlight, carbon dioxide and water. As this photosynthesis proceeds, diatoms multiply by splitting. Though each diatom is invisible, they outweigh in volume and importance all other sea plants combined, including seaweeds which grow as big as oaks...
...single species of diatom, Allen found, rarely held the lead in one spot for more than ten days. The species vary greatly. Though all contain vital green chlorophyll, some diatoms and dinoflagellates are brown or yellow or red-whence the Red Sea. Other diatoms sometimes make the sea stink. In fact, diatoms probably cause the universal "fishy" taste and smell of sea creatures...
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