View allAll Photos Tagged algae
Rings of bloom and bust for communities of simple life.
The environment is either sodden with water, drying out or dry and I guess that this reflects upon the growth of this lichen or blue-green algae. There is a brown leaf in a top crack which gives an idea of scale. Static rippling of echoes of water. This image was hiding under a lip of petrified dry waterfall.
The thallus in these algae is coenocytic - i.e it is not divided into separate cells by cross-walls as in most other plants. The whole of the structure seen here is therefore techically a single cell! In spite of this, these algae have a remarkably complex morphology, with the thallus divided into the equivalent of roots, horizontal stems and leaves, although it is assumed that there is no homology between the structures seen in these plants and those of terrestrial groups.
Foliose red algae
Date: 14/08/2005
SE Lunga, Firth of Lorn
Photographer: Ben James
© SNH. All rights reserved. Please email for details - marinephotos@nature.scot
Image ref: DSC05099/NM-05-1230
February 20, 2019
Exploring Folly Cove in Lanesville, Cape Ann.
Folly Cove
Village of Lanesville
Gloucester, Massachusetts
Cape Ann - USA
Photo by brucetopher
© Bruce Christopher 2019
All Rights Reserved
...always learning - critiques welcome.
Tools: Canon 7D & iPhone 6s.
No use without permission.
Please email for usage info.
Red algae on silty bedrock
Date: 13/08/2005
NE Garbh Eileach, Garvellachs, Firth of Lorn
Photographer: Ben James
© SNH. All rights reserved. Please email for details - marinephotos@nature.scot
Image ref: DSC05043/NM-05-1180
The Phaeophyceae or brown algae (singular: alga), is a large group of mostly marine multicellular algae, including many seaweeds of colder Northern Hemisphere waters. They play an important role in marine environments, both as food and for the habitats they form. For instance Macrocystis, a kelp of the order Laminariales, may reach 60 m in length, and forms prominent underwater forests. Another example is Sargassum, which creates unique habitats in the tropical waters of the Sargasso Sea. Many brown algae, such as members of the order Fucales, commonly grow along rocky seashores. Some members of the class are used as food for humans.
Worldwide there are about 1500-2000 species of brown algae. Some species are of sufficient commercial importance, such as Ascophyllum nodosum, that they have become subjects of extensive research in their own right.
Brown algae belong to a very large group, the Heterokontophyta, a eukaryotic group of organisms distinguished most prominently by having chloroplasts surrounded by four membranes, suggesting an origin from a symbiotic relationship between a basal eukaryote and another eukaryotic organism. Most brown algae contain the pigment fucoxanthin, which is responsible for the distinctive greenish-brown color that gives them their name. Brown algae are unique among heterokonts in developing into multicellular forms with differentiated tissues, but they reproduce by means of flagellated spores and gametes that closely resemble cells of other heterokonts. Genetic studies show their closest relatives to be the yellow-green algae.
Long Beach Smithtown, Long Island NY
This set of 3 kelp pressings is the largest I have pressed.
Size of cardboard:
140x100 cm, 55x40 inches.
Laminaria digitata is common in France
(Britanny), in Ireland and north of Europe. It is commercialized as kombu.
A paper by CSIR researchers, Dheepak Maharajh and Asha Harilal named ‘Transforming South Africa’s Biodiversity into Diesel’ has taken us one step closer to a future where we could be running on algae.
The paper presented the isolation of beneficial organisms and the best organisms from that potential in the biomass process. Currently biodiesel production and research are focused on crop based feedstock, such as palm oil. Researchers and stakeholders in the field are concerned that these biomass products could become unsustainable in the long term due to arable land and water requirements – not to mention the competition with food crops.
Algae has shown great potential in being the possible solution, as 40% can be harvested as fuel according to Maharajh;
“Algae generally grow at lower densities than bacteria or yeast, but their growth rates are far superior to terrestrial plants. These masses are specific to the organisms capability to produce oil. Eg, to produce 1 litre of fuel from an algae that produced 40% oil we would require 2.5kg of dry algal biomass, which could be as much as 2500L of liquid culture”
Microalgae have an oil yield at least 10 times better than oil seed crops and are capable of using environmental waste substrates such as carbon dioxide and nitrate-rich waste water for growth. For the last three years CSIR researchers have been actively sampling South Africa’s biodiversity and have successfully obtained over 200 isolates.
Full Article: southafricanbiodiversity.co.za/biodiversity/550-running-o...