The IRE Resource Center is a major research library containing more than 23,250 investigative stories — both print and broadcast. These stories are searchable online or by contacting the Resource Center directly (573-882-3364 or rescntr@ire.org) where a researcher can help you pinpoint what you need. Browse or search the tipsheet section of our library below. Stories are not available for download but can be easily ordered by contacting the Resource Center:
Search results for "algae" ...
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Very troubled waters
A U.S. News examination of EPA data and state reports on thousands of rivers from 1984 to 1998 finds that the percentage of rivers designated as "impaired" has grown from 26 percent in 1986 to 36 percent in the most recent reports. The article looks at several pollutants affecting the water quality of rivers including: farm runoff, city sewage system, industry, mining, construction and urban and suburban runoff.
Tags: Clean Water Act; rivers; pollution; water quality; algae; farm runoff; EPA; Fayetteville; Arkansas.
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The Most Important Fish In The Sea
Discover reports on the decline of a fish called menhaden, one of the most important links in the food chain. Menhaden are used as high protein feed for chicken, cattle and hogs. Many larger fish consumed by humans feed on menhaden. The decline in their numbers is cause for alarm. Not only is the food chain suffering, but the algae and detritus which menhaden feed on now clogs inland waters. "Since market forces are unlikely to curtain the menhaden fishery, governments may have to take action," Discover reports.
Tags: food chain; environment; menhaden
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New Life in a Death Trap
Discover Magazine looks at the highly acidic Lake Berkeley in Butte, Montana. Lake Berkeley once was an open-pit mine that ceased production in the early 1980s. When the mining came to a hault, groundwater flooded the pit. Today, Lake Berkeley has a pH of 2.6 and contains metals such as copper, cadmium and arsenic. However, while the lake appears dead, local scientists have discovered that tough bacteria and algae are actually living in the lake.
Tags: Lake Berkeley; Butte; Montana; life; bacteria; algae; metal; mining; enviornment
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Feeding the World, poisoning the planet
In just the past two decades, industrialization, population growth and intense use of chemical fertilizers have doubled the amount of nitrogen in circulation among living things...And this sudden explosion of nitrogen has meant mounting worldwide environmental problems that promise to soon get worse and, some scientists predict, to reach the point of calamity." Some examples: More frequent algae blooms (red tides) kill fish and other sea life in coastal waters, invasive plants take over prairies in Minnesota, acid rain in the Blue Ride Mountains, visibility impaired in waters near the Great Barrier Reef, forest mushrooms disappear in Holland.
Tags: nitrogen; environment; water; red tide; algae; seafood; sewage; fishing; "dead zones"; praires; fertilizer; ammonia; farming; sea grass; Baltic; blue crabs; sea grass; agriculture; scallops; monk seals; sea lions; shrimp; hogs; Lake Pontchartrain
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No title (id: 6755)
Hawaii Business looks into Cyanotech, a Hawaiian corporation that won major grants to develop algae-based health food supplements, wooed investors and the state out of millions of dollars over six years, and then went belly up, September 1989.
Tags: None