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Green algae and plants possess two forms of this pigment: chlorophyll a and chlorophyll b. Kelps, diatoms, and other photosynthetic heterokonts contain chlorophyll c instead of b, while red algae possess only chlorophyll a. All chlorophylls serve as the primary means plants use to intercept light in order to fuel photosynthesis.
Dulse is one of many edible algae. Algaculture may become an important part of a healthy and sustainable food system [11]. Several species of algae are raised for food. While algae have qualities of a sustainable food source, "producing highly digestible proteins, lipids, and carbohydrates, and are rich in essential fatty acids, vitamins, and minerals" and e.g. having a high protein ...
Cyanobacteria is the only prokaryotic group that performs oxygenic photosynthesis. Anoxygenic photosynthetic bacteria use PSI- and PSII-like photosystems, which are pigment protein complexes for capturing light. [5] Both of these photosystems use bacteriochlorophyll. There are multiple hypotheses for how oxygenic photosynthesis evolved.
Marine cyanobacteria include the smallest known photosynthetic organisms. The smallest of all, Prochlorococcus, is just 0.5 to 0.8 micrometres across. [48] In terms of numbers of individuals, Prochlorococcus is possibly the most plentiful genus on Earth: a single millilitre of surface seawater can contain 100,000 cells of this genus or more.
In contrast, green plants, red algae, brown algae, and cyanobacteria are all autotrophs, which use photosynthesis to produce their own food from sunlight. Some fungi may be saprotrophic, meaning they will extracellularly secrete enzymes onto their food to be broken down into smaller, soluble molecules which can diffuse back into the fungus.
Marine algae can be divided into six groups: green, red and brown algae, euglenophytes, dinoflagellates and diatoms. Dinoflagellates and diatoms are important components of marine algae and have their own sections below. Euglenophytes are a phylum of unicellular flagellates with only a few marine members. Not all algae are microscopic.
A type of algae, Ancylonema nordenskioeldii, was found in Greenland in areas known as the 'Dark Zone', which caused an increase in the rate of melting ice sheet. [89] The same algae was found in the Italian Alps, after pink ice appeared on parts of the Presena glacier. [90] The various sorts of algae play significant roles in aquatic ecology.
The pelagic food web, showing the central involvement of marine microorganisms in how the ocean imports nutrients from and then exports them back to the atmosphere and ocean floor. A marine food web is a food web of marine life. At the base of the ocean food web are single-celled algae and other plant-like organisms known as phytoplankton.