On skin, it’s barely a freckle I’d make,
But baby, en masse, we turn seas opaque!
Come darkness, come famine, come poison or flood,
My kind can flourish in any old crud.
I may be a tiny and brainless brown cell,
But my tactics are brilliant; I’m doing quite well.
So, “higher” life-forms, with deep-furrowed brow,
I’ve made my move … what will you do now?
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Further reading (on what humans are doing now …):
Like Weeds of the Sea, ‘Brown Tide’ Algae Exploit Nutrient-Rich Coastlines, Earth Institute
De novo assembly of Aureococcus anophagefferens transcriptomes reveals diverse responses to the low nutrient and low light conditions present during blooms, Frischkorn et al., Frontiers in Microbiology
This is one in a series of poems written by Katherine Allen, a researcher in geochemistry and paleoclimate at the Lamont-Doherty Earth Observatory and the Institute of Marine and Coastal Sciences at Rutgers University.
