Pandoravirus sediments. Pandoraviruses, like other marine viruses, prey on plankton, which are organisms that live in the water column and form the basis of the food chain for other marine species. More study and research needs to be done in order to confirm the prevalence of Pandoraviruses in different environments. Currently, not much is known about their role in marine ecosystems. Pandoraviruses do have approximately 93% of their genes that are unidentifiable with any other microbes, suggesting they may belong to an as of yet undescribed "fourth domain" aside from Bacteria, Archaea, and Eukaryotes. Viruses as a whole are not popularly
Harmful Algal Bloom and Hypoxia Research and Control Amendments Act of 2013 accumulation in the population of algae (typically microscopic) in an aquatic system. Algal blooms may occur in freshwater as well as marine environments. Freshwater algal blooms are the result of an excess of nutrients, particularly some phosphates. Harmful algal blooms are algal bloom events involving toxic or otherwise harmful phytoplankton such as dinoflagellates of the genus "Alexandrium" and "Karenia" or diatoms of the genus "Pseudo-nitzschia". is an algal bloom that causes negative impacts to other organisms via production of natural toxins, mechanical damage to other organisms, or by other means. HABs are often associated with large-scale marine mortality events and