11.   On Long Island, the culprit is brown tide, a phytoplankton that has hit hard each of the past two years.

12.   Nuzzi said that his carefully collected data were finally beginning to produce some promising theories about what causes brown tide.

13.   One of the immediate short-term concerns is the heavy runoff from farm lands, which means increased nitrates that promote algae blooms such as brown tide.

14.   Scientists have found several microscopic animals that consume brown tide, and are working to see if they could be applied to the Laguna Madre.

15.   Similar accounts of bureaucratic fumbling and insufficient financing are characteristic of the troubles that have surrounded more than a decade of brown tide research.

16.   The brown tide has not returned this year, but scientists say it will certainly come back to threaten the long-term health of fragile coastal food chains.

17.   The phenomenon became known as brown tide because it turned the water a murky brown.

18.   The scientists report that they have isolated a number of viruses that live in the sea water and can destroy the microscopic brown tide algae.

19.   This year, marine biologists say, the scallops are more abundant than any time since the emergence of brown tide.

20.   When those algae decompose over time, the organic nitrogen they release creates the ideal circumstances for a brown tide bloom.