Algae
What is algae?
Who? What? Where? When? Why?
What is Algae?
Algae are aquatic organisms that live in salt or freshwater
They can be microscopic, macroscopic, unicellular, or multicellular
Algae are phytoplankton:
Who are Algae?
Most algae are photoautotrophs, meaning they make their own food using sunlight via photosynthesis
There are so many different species of algae and they all look different, have different specialties, habitats, shapes and sizes.
Photosynthesis
What Does Algae Need To Thrive?
Algae needs the ingredients for photosynthesis which are sunlight, water, and carbon dioxide
Algae also need nitrogen and phosphorus to grow and thrive
There are environmental factors that can determine the success of a specific species of algae including sunlight levels, temperature, pH as well as predators and competitors
Types of Algae - Chlorophytes
Here are some “green” algae, or Chlorophytes. These algae all have a green color to them, but they differ in their morphology, their shape and size.
Types of Algae - Cyanobacteria
Blue green algae are actually little bacteria, rather than plants, so they are called cyanobacteria. But these little bacteria can photosynthesize just like plants! They are called blue-green algae because in large numbers the cells look blue-green in color from the pigment phycocyanin they use to capture sunlight.
Types of Algae - Diatoms
Diatoms are unique in that they produce their own skeleton out of silica, like a glass skeleton! They also have a brownish tint to them because they have a secondary pigment that helps capture light, called fucoxanthin.
Where is Algae?
They can be found in millions of sources, including fish tanks, puddles, and our lakes and oceans.
Algae is in your food, medicine, and cosmetic products!
Algae blooms seen from space!!!
When is Algae?
Algae has been on Earth for a very long time; it is the most ancient form of plants on earth!
Some scientists trace the earliest forms of algae to more than 700 million years ago
Algae go through phases of high and low concentrations but are almost always present in some level
Why is Algae Important?
Algae are a building block of the entire food web because they are primary producers.
Algae are an important source of energy for all things that live in the sea, lakes and streams.
Take a deep breath ~ over 50% of that oxygen is coming from algae around the world.
What threats are there to algae?
Algae are beginning to disappear as the oceans and lakes are getting warmer from climate change.
Also, algae is growing in places it should not. These “harmful algae blooms” HABS, are often the result of pollution of nutrients that make the conditions great for some strains of algae.
What will happen to the food web if there is too much or too little algae? What will happen to the bacteria, or tuna or sharks if algae disappear?
What would happen to the air that we breathe?
Why do we study algae?
Someone who studies algae is called a phycologist
Phycologists work to understand algae.
Applied-Phycologists strive to understand what humans can do to use of the many different species of algae that are all around us.
Uses of Algae - Medical and Nutraceuticals
Uses of Algae - Cosmetics
Uses of Algae - Biofuel
Uses of Algae - Pollution Cleanup
Uses of Algae - Fertilizer
Uses of Algae - Food
Algae is in our food???
Algae can be found in many of our favorite foods, like in almond milk. Here, algae is represented by the ingredient carrageenan
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