Seaweed is the oldest plant on Earth. Scientists believe that their age is more than one thousand million years. Let's plunge into the world of these unique plants and find out interesting facts about them, find out how algae reproduce and how they can be useful.
Brief information
More than 45,000 species of algae are known, which can significantly differ from each other in color, shape, size and habitat. They ensure the life of the aquatic environment, as they are the basis of the diet of many species of marine animals.
The first knowledge about marine plants is given to us by biology science. Algae, their structure, can be examined under a microscope, which is what children do in practical classes at school.
Depending on their habitat, algae are divided into deep algae, which are attached to the seabed, and planktonic, floating in the water column. At the bottom of the oceans, algae can form real underwater forests.
An interesting question is how algae reproduce. For them, vegetative, asexual reproduction, and sexual reproduction may be characteristic. Some can multiply by cell division, others by processes of the stem part or spores.
The practical benefits of algae to humans
It is impossible to overestimate the role of aquatic plants for humans. Seaweed has a lot of iodine, minerals and vitamins. The content is much higher than in other marine products. Therefore, many algae are used in the food industry as a useful vitamin supplement.
Algae are widely used in cosmetology. Creams and emulsions based on them have a rejuvenating, tonic, firming effect for the skin. In many beauty salons, a popular procedure is to wrap the entire body using natural diatoms. At the same time, they are collected from the bottom of the sea, frozen, crushed and dried. The resulting powder can be used for such procedures.
Algae are used by humans in the chemical industry. Of these, they are able to produce acetic acid, potassium salts, cellulose, alcohol. Work is also underway to obtain fuel from marine biomass.
Man learned to use algae for biological wastewater treatment, as an alternative to chemical treatment.
Interesting Algae Facts
No wonder algae are the very first plants on the planet. Humanity is not tired of solving their riddles. Scientists, studying the sea, learn new interesting facts about algae:
- Algae are similar in composition to microbes and macronutrients with human blood.
- They have no roots. All the substances necessary for growth are absorbed through the leaves from the water. They join the bottom or coral with rhizoids.
- The science of algae is called algology.
- Algae is intentionally propagated in spacecraft compartments to create a biologically active environment.
- Even if sea water seems clean and transparent at first glance, microscopic aquatic plants also live in it.
- A small village in Okinawa is famous for its huge number of centenarians. The reason for this they themselves call the high content of brown algae in the diet.
- In ancient China, seaweed was used for the prevention and treatment of cancer.
- Aquatic plants in symbiosis with mushrooms form a new organism - lichen.
- Some marine plants have luminescent properties and can glow in the dark. The glow of the sea is a very picturesque phenomenon.
- The largest algae is kelp. Its length can reach sixty meters.
- In some highland areas, a phenomenon called watermelon snow is known. Algae gives the snow a pink hue, smell and taste of watermelon.
- There are species of marine plants that are dangerous for animals; they produce a special substance that saves them from being eaten by fish.
The role of algae in the biosystem of our planet
Algae are the main producers of organic matter on the planet. Their share in this process is about 80%. Here are some interesting facts about algae, confirming their importance for humans and the planet as a whole:
- Algae is a food source for many animals.
- They are also the basis for the formation of certain rocks: limestone, oil shale.
- Algae are involved in the formation of therapeutic mud.
- They are a powerful converter of carbon dioxide to oxygen.
Why can algae save the earth?
Few people know interesting facts about algae. Meanwhile, this topic is very entertaining. For example, there is information that these creatures can save the world. Scientists have developed a new technology that helps reduce carbon dioxide emissions into the atmosphere. At the same time, water containers containing microalgae will be used as filters.
As you can see, marine plants, seemingly inconspicuous and primitive, are a storehouse of useful substances that people have learned to use for their own benefit. It is also a necessary cell in the planet’s biosystem, without which most biological processes involving algae or their metabolic products would undergo significant changes.