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A 2020 study looked at functional traits (blade mass per area, stiffness, strength, etc.) of 14 species of kelp and found that many of these traits evolved convergently across kelp phylogeny. With different species of kelp filling slightly different environmental niches, specifically along a wave disturbance gradient, many of these convergently ...
An alternative offset would be to cultivate kelp forests. Kelp can grow at 2 feet per day, 30 times faster than terrestrial plants. Planting kelp across 10% of the oceans (4.5 x the area of Australia) could provide the same offset. Additionally, the kelp would support a fish harvest of 2 megatons per year and reduce ocean acidification. Large ...
Giant kelp grows in dense stands known as kelp forests, which are home to many marine animals that depend on the algae for food or shelter. The primary commercial product obtained from giant kelp is alginate , but humans also harvest this species on a limited basis for use directly as food.
Seaweed species such as kelps provide essential nursery habitat for fisheries and other marine species and thus protect food sources; other species, such as planktonic algae, play a vital role in capturing carbon and producing at least 50% of Earth's oxygen. [3] Natural seaweed ecosystems are sometimes under threat from human activity.
Marine life, sea life or ocean life is the collective ecological communities that encompass all aquatic animals, plants, algae, fungi, protists, single-celled microorganisms and associated viruses living in the saline water of marine habitats, either the sea water of marginal seas and oceans, or the brackish water of coastal wetlands, lagoons ...
Connectivity of ocean surface ecosystems may be facilitated by the life history of species living there. One hypothesis is that species have pelagic stages to "escape" surface sink regions and repopulate surface source regions, where one life cycle stage drifts on surface currents in one direction, and a pelagic stage either remains ...
Red algae, a (disputed) phylum contains about 7,000 recognised species, [50] mostly multicellular and including many notable seaweeds. [50] [51] Brown algae form a class containing about 2,000 recognised species, [52] mostly multicellular and including many seaweeds such as kelp. Unlike higher plants, algae lack roots, stems, or leaves.
In 2004, scientists reported a loss in sugar kelp of up to 80% at Skagerrak and 40% at the West coast of Norway. [2] [11] [12] The reasons for this loss are not fully understood, but the increase in ocean temperature, high levels of nutrients and the reduction in animal species feeding off the filamentous algae are suggested as the most likely ...