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Therefore, algae can be considered as a natural source of great interest, since they contain compounds with numerous biological activities and can be used as a functional ingredient in many technological applications to obtain functional foods. Polysaccharides in seaweed may be metabolized in humans through the action of bacterial gut enzymes ...
Eighty percent of the world's nations eat insects of 1,000 to 2,000 species. [6] [7] FAO has registered some 1,900 edible insect species and estimates that there were, in 2005, around two billion insect consumers worldwide. FAO suggests eating insects as a possible solution to environmental degradation caused by livestock production. [8]
Domoic acid can cause Amnesic Shellfish Poisoning (ASP) in humans that eat them. ASP is only a concern when algae in the ecosystem increases to high levels during an algal bloom. Shellfish are susceptible to accumulation of toxins due to their morphology as filter feeders. When they filter feed algae containing domoic acid, they can have ...
Cyanobacteria (blue-green algae) bloom on Lake Erie (United States) in 2009. These kinds of algae can cause harmful algal bloom. A harmful algal bloom (HAB), or excessive algae growth, is an algal bloom that causes negative impacts to other organisms by production of natural algae-produced toxins, water deoxygenation, mechanical damage to other organisms, or by other means.
Cloudy water can be a warning that there are more germs in the water than normal. Discolored or smelly water could mean there is a harmful algal bloom in the water.
A chimpanzee species found to consume algae. The chimpanzee is a primate in the same family as humans and are native to sub-Saharan Africa. While many chimpanzees are naturally hydrophobic, Sakamaki (1998) found that those in Mahale have been observed to submerge themselves into freshwater and eat algae. [7]
Some predatory algae have evolved extreme survival strategies. For example, Oxyrrhis marina can turn cannibalistic on its own species when no suitable non-self prey is available, [11] and Pfiesteria and related species have been discovered to kill and feed on fish, and since have been (mistakenly) referred to as carnivorous "algae" by the media.
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.