engleski

Marine Gel Network

The macroscopic marine gel phase appears episodically in the northern Adriatic Sea. The phenomenon manifests itself in rapid production of enormous amounts of gelatinous matter in the water column and on the sea surface. Current views leave no doubt on phytoplankton as a proximal source of polymers constituting the gel network, but the mechanism leading to its rapid formation remains unknown. The mechanism of marine gel formation, its stability and the role of gel state in marine ecosystem is becoming a most challenging exercise in converging disciplines of marine chemistry, microbiology and biophysics. Atomic force microscopy (AFM) imaging of native marine gel demonstrates that an important fraction of specimen consists of entangled fibrils.

marine gel; atomic force microscopy

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