SPECIAL GLASS TUBE TO HELP STUDY OF SEAWEED

Press, Volume XCIX, Issue 29299, 2 September 1960, Page 17

SPECIAL GLASS TUBE TO HELP STUDY OF SEAWEED

"Th. Pras" Sjrtcial Service

AUCKLAND, September 1. I A special 18-foot fibreglass tube ] is being built in the United States for the botany department of the ( University of Auckland as the 1 first stage of a research pro- ' gramme into the underwater ’ growth of seaweeds. ] The tube will form one of the I main parts of an underwater growth chamber, the first of its i kind in the world. The chamber ■ will be placed in the sea near the naval base at Islington Bay on 1 Rangitoto Island. i The tube would cost about 700 ’ dollars, said Professor V. J. Chapman, head of the botany department The work will be carried out with the aid of a Rockefeller Foundation grant of 6600 dollars. "So far people have never been able to grow the large red and brown seaweeds in the laboratory,” said Professor Chapman. “The main trouble is the circulation of the water. “We hope to get over that with J our new chamber. If it works i properly we will be growing seaweeds under controlled condi- , tions.” The seaweed, completely submerged, will be grown on a rock at the bottom of the tube. i Water will circulate round it i for natural conditions and the ' light it receives will be from a < block of seven special floodlights which will float up and down on the surface with the tide. Special metal baffles will be used to prevent sunlight from getting at the plants under study. “The variation in light is generally the major factor affecting seaweeds growing underwater,”

said Professor Chapman. “The light will be rigidly controlled in the new chamber.” Since the seaweeds will be growing about eight feet below low water. Professor Chapman win have to wear an aqualung when he studies them. “But that doesn’t worry me,” he said. "I’ve done a bit of diving before." The fibreglass tube should arrive from America about November, said Professor Chapman. He expects to spend most of the long Christmas vacation setting up the chamber and seeing if it wiU work as he expects.