Algae Report will tell you what kind of algae there are, and what the role of algae is in nature and human life.
Algae message
Almost every body of water contains algae. They are a wayward indicator of water purity and supply it with oxygen useful for all aquatic inhabitants.
What is algae?
Algae belong to an ecological heterogeneous group of multicellular phototrophic, unicellular and colonial organisms that, as a rule, live in water bodies. All known types of algae are united by the following characteristics:
1. characterized by photoautotrophic nutrition and the presence of chlorophyll
2. there is no differentiation of the plant body into organs as such
3. algae have a pronounced conducting system
4. live in humid environments
5. no integumentary membrane
Due to the fact that algae are adapted to aquatic environment habitat, they have developed a special feature of physiology - the necessary nutrients are absorbed by the entire surface of the plant’s body. The vital activity of algae depends on four factors - light, carbon dioxide, the chemical composition of the water and its temperature.
What types of algae are there?
In nature, algae comes in three main types:
* Green algae
They belong to the division of lower plants, which have different morphological structures and sizes. They contain carotenoids and chlorophyll plates. Green algae come in multicellular and unicellular forms. They have a reserve substance - starch, sometimes oils. It is noteworthy that unicellular green algae live not only in the aquatic environment, but also in soil or snow. But multicellular plants live in the upper layers of reservoirs, which is due to the implementation of the productive process of photosynthesis.
* Brown algae
They belong to the division of ochrophytic algae. Modern biology includes more than 2000 species. Almost all brown algae live in marine aquatic environments. And only 6 species of these plants were able to adapt to life on dry land during evolution. Scientists have discovered that the chromatophores of brown algae contain fucoxanthin, a special pigment that colors them brown.
The most common brown algae are: Macrocystis Laminaria and Cystoseira. There is practically no chlorophyll in their body, which makes the life activity of these algae independent of photosynthesis processes. Therefore, the habitat of plants is the seabed.
* Red algae
Red algae belong to a group of algae that contain a specific red pigment in their body - phycoerythrin. Their color depends on the amount of phycoerythrin in the plant’s body - it ranges in color from bright pink to dark cherry color.
Red algae primarily live in the seas. Their body carries out photosynthesis, despite the small amount of chlorophyll. These plants are widely used in industrial production, most of them are suitable for consumption.
A message about the importance of algae in nature and human life
1. Algae are the basis of nutrition for herbivorous animals, such as crustaceans, mollusks, some fish, mammals and others.
2. Algae enrich the water column and the air above it with oxygen. Dead plants of some species are capable of forming sedimentary rocks: diatomite, limestone and tripoli. They contribute to the process of soil formation and increase soil fertility. Algae that live in the bottom area provide shelter and home for fish and other aquatic animals.
3. Algae are consumed by humans as food. Bromine, iodine, agar-agar are also extracted from them, and medications are made.
4. They are used for biological treatment water and act as fertilizer.
5. Algae is widely used in the chemical, food, paper and textile industries.
Besides beneficial properties, some types of algae also cause harm. For example, unicellular algae, multiplying massively in fresh water bodies, lead to water bloom. Living in airlocks and water filters, they interfere with their normal operation.
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Which have no stem, root or foliage. Preferential algae habitat are seas and fresh water bodies.
Green algae department.
Green algae there are unicellular And multicellular and contain chlorophyll. Green algae reproduce sexually and asexually. Green algae live in bodies of water (fresh and salty), in soil, on rocks and stones, and on the bark of trees. The Green Algae department has about 20,000 species and is divided into five classes:
1) Class protococcal- unicellular and multicellular flagellate forms.
2) Volvox class- the simplest unicellular algae that have flagella and are capable of organizing colonies.
3) Heat class- have a structure similar to that of horsetails.
4) Ulothrix class- have a filamentous or lamellar thallus.
5) Siphon class- a class of algae that are similar in appearance to other algae, but consist of a single cell with many nuclei. The size of siphon algae reaches 1 meter.
Department of red algae (purple algae).
Purple fish are found in warm seas at great depths. This department has about 4,000 species. Thallus red algae has a dissected structure; they are attached to the substrate using soles or rhizoid. Red algae plastids contain chlorophylls, carotenoids And phycobilins.
Another feature of red algae is that they reproduce using complex sexual process. Red algae spores and gametes are motionless because they do not have flagella. The fertilization process occurs passively through the transfer of male gametes to the female genitals.
Department of brown algae.
Brown algae- these are multicellular organisms that have a yellowish-brown color due to the concentration of carotene in the surface layers of cells. There are about 1.5 thousand species of brown algae, which have a variety of shapes: bush-like, lamellar, spherical, crust-like, thread-like.
Due to the content of gas bubbles in the thalli of brown algae, most of them are able to maintain a vertical position. Thallus cells have differentiated functions: extinction and photosynthetic. Brown algae do not have a complete conducting system, but in the center of the thallus there are tissues that transport assimilation products. Nutrient minerals are absorbed by the entire surface of the thallus.
Different types of algae reproduce by all types of reproduction:
Sporov;
Sexual (isogamous, monogamous, heterogamous);
Vegetative (occurs when some parts of the thallus are accidentally divided).
The importance of algae for the biosphere.
Algae are the initial link in most food chains of various reservoirs, oceans and seas. Algae also saturate the atmosphere with oxygen.
Seaweed actively are used to obtain various products: polysaccharides agar-agar and carrageenan, used in cooking and cosmetics, are extracted from red algae; alginic acids, also used in the food and cosmetics industries, are extracted from brown algae.
The world's oceans are an endless source of amazing animals and plants, among which various algae occupy an important place. The report will focus on a representative of marine flora - brown algae.
Types of brown algae
Brown seaweed - multicellular organisms. They live in sea water at depths from 5 to 100 meters. They usually attach to rocks. Brown color gives algae a special brown pigment. Some types of algae are striking in their size, reaching a length of up to 60 meters; there are also very tiny representatives. Lives in the world's oceans more than 1000 species brown-green algae.
From the broad class of brown algae, several interesting and useful species can be distinguished.
1. Sargassy
The Sargasso Sea got its name from the accumulation of floating brown seaweed in its waters. - sargassum. Huge masses of these algae float on the surface of the water and form a continuous carpet. Because of this feature of brown algae, in ancient times the Sargasso Sea had a bad reputation - it was believed that a ship could become entangled in algae and would not be able to sail further, and if sailors climbed into the water to untangle the ship, they would become entangled and drown themselves.
In fact, the legends and myths about the Sargasso Sea are not true, because the sargasso is absolutely safe and does not interfere with the movement of ships.
Sargassum is used:
- as a source of potassium;
- the stems of these algae provide food and shelter for their young.
2. Fucus
Other names: sea grapes, king algae. Fucus is distributed in almost all marine bodies of water on Earth. It lives at shallow depths in the form of small bushes with long greenish-brown leaves. Fucus is a storehouse of vitamins and nutrients.
Used:
- in medicine for the treatment and prevention of various diseases and strengthening the immune system;
- helps care for skin and hair, and is used as a weight loss supplement.
3. Kelp
Another name for kelp is sea kale. It looks like a long stem of brown-green color with leaves. This algae lives in the Black, Red, Japanese and other seas. Chemical composition algae is rich in vitamins, minerals, amino acids. Consumed as food There are only 2 types of kelp - Japanese and sugary.
Usage:
- Inedible varieties are widely used in medicine.
- Like fucus, kelp is used in various diets as a natural appetite suppressant.
- Laminaria contains special substances that can protect the human body from dangerous radiation exposure.
- Sea kale is also used to treat cancer and leukemia.
With constant consumption of kelp, you can reduce cholesterol levels in the blood, improve intestinal function, increase the protective properties of the immune system, normalize metabolism, and improve the functioning of the nervous, circulatory and respiratory systems.
Brown algae are marine plants that are widely used in many areas of human activity.
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Seaweed(lat. Algae) - heterogeneous environmental group predominantly phototrophic unicellular, colonial or multicellular organisms, usually living in an aquatic environment, systematically representing a collection of many departments. Entering into symbiosis with fungi, these organisms, in the course of evolution, formed completely new organisms - lichens.
The study of algae is an important stage in the training of specialists in the field of mariculture, fish farming and marine ecology. The science of algae is called algology.
Seaweed- a group of organisms of different origins, united by the following characteristics: the presence of chlorophyll and photoautotrophic nutrition; in multicellular organisms - lack of clear differentiation of the body (called thallus, or thallus) into organs; lack of a pronounced conduction system; living in an aquatic environment or in damp conditions (soil, damp places, etc.). They themselves do not have organs, tissues and lack a covering membrane.
Some algae are capable of heterotrophy (feeding on ready-made organic matter), both osmotrophy (on the cell surface), for example flagellates, and by ingestion through the cell mouth (euglena, dinophytes). The size of algae ranges from fractions of a micron (coccolithophores and some diatoms) to 30-50 m (brown algae - kelp, macrocystis, sargassum). Thallus can be either unicellular or multicellular. Among multicellular algae, along with large ones, there are microscopic ones (for example, sporophyte kelp). Among unicellular organisms there are colonial forms, when individual cells are closely related to each other (connected through plasmodesmata or immersed in common mucus).
Algae include a varying number (depending on the classification) of eukaryotic divisions, many of which are not related by a common origin. Algae also often include blue-green algae or cyanobacteria, which are prokaryotes. Traditionally, algae are classified as plants.
Algal cells (with the exception of the amoeboid type) are covered with a cell wall and/or cell membrane. The wall is on the outside of the cell membrane, usually containing a structural component (for example, cellulose) and an amorphous matrix (for example, pectins or agar substances); it may also have additional layers (for example, the sporopollenin layer in chlorella). The cell membrane is either an external silicone shell (in diatoms and some other ochrophytes), or a compacted upper layer of cytoplasm (plasmalemma), in which there may be additional structures, for example, vesicles, empty or with cellulose plates (a kind of shell, theca, in dinoflagellates ). If the cell membrane is plastic, the cell may be capable of so-called metabolic movement - sliding due to a slight change in body shape.
Photosynthetic (and “masking” them) pigments are located in special plastids - chloroplasts. A chloroplast has two (red, green, charophyte algae), three (euglena, dinoflagellates) or four (ochrophyte algae) membranes. It also has its own highly reduced genetic apparatus, which suggests its symbiogenesis (origin from a captured prokaryotic or, in heterokont algae, eukaryotic cell). The inner membrane protrudes inward, forming folds - thylakoids, collected in stacks - grana: monothylakoid in red and blue-green, two or more in green and charoves, trithylakoid in the rest. The thylakoids, in fact, are where the pigments are located. Chloroplasts in algae have different shape(small disc-shaped, spiral-shaped, cup-shaped, stellate, etc.). Many chloroplasts have dense structures called pyrenoids.
Products of photosynthesis, in this moment excess, are stored in the form of various reserve substances: starch, glycogen, other polysaccharides, lipids. Among other things, lipids, being lighter than water, allow planktonic diatoms with their heavy shells to stay afloat. Gas bubbles form in some algae, which also provide the algae with lifting force.
Vegetative, asexual and sexual reproduction occurs in algae.
Large seaweeds, mainly brown ones, often form entire underwater forests. Most algae live from the surface of the water to a depth of 20-40 m; isolated species (red and brown) with good water transparency go down to 200 m.
In 1984, coralline red algae was found at a depth of 268 m, which is a record for photosynthetic organisms. Algae are often large quantities live on the surface and in the upper layers of the soil, some of them assimilate atmospheric nitrogen, others have adapted to life on the bark of trees, fences, walls of houses, and rocks.
Microscopic algae cause red or yellow "coloring" of snow in high mountains and polar regions. Some algae enter into symbiotic relationships with fungi (lichens) and animals.
Algae are an extremely heterogeneous group of organisms, numbering about 100 thousand (and according to some sources up to 100 thousand species only within the diatom division) species. Based on the differences in the set of pigments, the structure of the chromatophore, the characteristics of morphology and biochemistry (composition of cell membranes, types of reserve nutrients), most domestic taxonomists distinguish 11 divisions of algae.
Many useful substances used in the production of plastics, varnishes, paints, paper and even explosives are obtained from brown algae. They are used to make medicines (including iodine), fertilizers, and livestock feed. Seaweeds occupy an important place in the menu of the peoples of Southeast Asia, being the basis of many dishes.
The Red Sea is named so because of the abundance of oscillatorium - red algae. Although it contains a red pigment, it belongs to the blue-green algae division.
From the red algae eucheum, the substance carrageenan is extracted, which is necessary for making lipstick and... ice cream.
