What type of seaweed grows up to 100 meters in length, and is farmed for its alginates?
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Seaweed Alginic acid Algae
Seaweed refers to several species of macroscopic, multicellular, marine algae. 

The term includes some types of red, brown, and green algae. Seaweed can also be classified by use (as food, medicine,  fertilizer, filtration, industrial, etc.).

Taxonomy 

A seaweed may belong to one of several groups of multicellular algae: the red algae, green algae, and brown algae. As these three groups do not have a common multicellular ancestor, the seaweed are in a polyphyletic group. In addition, some tuft-forming bluegreen algae (Cyanobacteria) are sometimes considered to be seaweed — "seaweed" is a colloquial term and lacks a formal definition.

Structure 

Seaweed's appearance somewhat resembles non-arboreal terrestrial plants.
* thallus: the algal body
** lamina or blade: a flattened structure that is somewhat leaf-like
*** sorus: a spore cluster
*** on Fucus, air bladder: a floatation-assisting organ on the blade
*** on kelp, float: a floatation-assisting organ between the lamina and stipe
** stipe: a stem-like structure, may be absent
** holdfast: a specialized basal structure providing attachment to a surface, often a rock or another alga
** haptera: a finger-like extension of the holdfast anchoring to a benthic substrate
The stipe and blade are collectively known as the frond.

Ecology 

Two specific environmental requirements dominate seaweed ecology. These are the presence of seawater (or at least brackish water) and the presence of light sufficient to drive photosynthesis. Another common requirement is a firm attachment point, although some genera such as Sargassum and Gracilaria have species that float freely. As a result, seaweed most commonly inhabit the  part of a sea that is close to the shore (the littoral zone) and within that zone more frequently on rocky shores than on sand or shingle. Seaweed occupy a wide range of ecological niches. The highest elevation is only wetted by the tops of sea spray, the lowest is several meters deep. In some areas, littoral seaweed can extend several miles out to sea. The limiting factor in such cases is sunlight availability. The deepest living seaweed are some species of red algae.

Others have adapted to live in tidal rock pools. In this habitat seaweed must withstand rapidly changing temperature and salinity and even occasional drying. 

Uses 

Seaweed has a variety of purposes, for which it is farmed  or foraged from the wild. 

At the beginning of 2011, Indonesia produced 3 million tonnes of seaweed and surpassed the Philippines as the world's largest seaweed producer. By 2011, the production was estimated to have reached 10 million tonnes. 

Food 

Seaweed are consumed by coastal people, particularly in East Asia, e.g. Japan, China, Korea, Taiwan, and Southeast Asia, e.g. Brunei, Singapore, Thailand, Burma, Cambodia, Vietnam, Indonesia, Philippines, and Malaysia, and also in South Africa, Belize, Peru, Chile, the Canadian Maritimes, Scandinavia, South West England,  Ireland, Wales, California, and Scotland.

In Asia, Gim (Korean food) (김, Korea), nori (海苔, Japan), zicai (紫菜, China) are sheets of dried Porphyra used in soups, sushi wrap or onigiri also known as rice ball. Chondrus crispus (commonly known as 'Irish moss' or carrageenan moss) is another red alga used in producing food additives, along with Kappaphycus and gigartinoid seaweed. Porphyra is a red alga used in Wales to make laver. Laverbread, made from oats and the laver, is a popular dish there. In northern Belize, edible seaweed are mixed with milk, nutmeg, cinnamon, and vanilla to make a common beverage affectionately called "dulce" (or "sweet").

Seaweed are also harvested or cultivated for the extraction of alginate, agar and carrageenan, gelatinous substances collectively known as hydrocolloids or phycocolloids. Hydrocolloids have attained commercial significance as food additives.  The food industry exploits their gelling, water-retention, emulsifying and other physical properties. Agar is used in foods such as confectionery, meat and poultry products, desserts and beverages and moulded foods. Carrageenan is used in salad dressings and sauces, dietetic foods, and as a preservative in meat and fish products, dairy items and baked goods.

Herbalism 

Alginates are commonly used in wound dressings, and production of dental moulds. In microbiology research, agar — a plant-based goo similar to gelatin and made from seaweed — is extensively used as culture medium. Carrageenans, alginates and agaroses (the latter are prepared from agar by purification), with other lesser-known macroalgal polysaccharides, have several important biological activities or applications in biomedicine.

Seaweed extract is used in some diet pills.   Other seaweed pills exploit the same effect as gastric banding, expanding in the stomach to make the body feel more full.  

Filtration 

The strong photosynthesis of algae creates a large affinity for nutrients; this allows the seaweed to be used purposely to remove undesired nutrients from water. Nutrients such as ammonia, ammonium nitrate, nitrite, phosphate, iron, copper, as well as CO2 are rapidly consumed by growing seaweed. Reefs and lakes are naturally filtered this way (the seaweed being consumed by fish and invertebrates), and this filtering process is duplicated in man-made seaweed filters such as algae scrubbers.

Seaweed (macroalgae), as opposed to phytoplankton (microalgae), is used almost universally for filtration purposes because of the need to be able to easily remove (harvest) the algae from the water, which then removes the nutrients. Microalgae require more processing to separate it from the water than macroalgae does; macroalgae is simply pulled out.

When used for filtration, saltwater algae commonly grows species of Cladophora, Ulva, and Chaetomorpha. Freshwater filtration applications are useful, too, and will commonly grow species such as Spirogyra.

Other uses 

Other seaweed may be used as fertilizer, compost for landscaping, or a means of combating beach erosion through burial in beach dunes.  Seaweed is under consideration as a potential source of bioethanol.  

Seaweed is an ingredient in toothpaste, cosmetics and paints. Alginates enjoy many of the same uses as carrageenan and are used in industrial products such as paper coatings, adhesives, dyes, gels, explosives and in processes such as paper sizing, textile printing, hydro-mulching and drilling. Research suggests that the Australian seaweed Delisea pulchra may interfere with bacterial colonization.  Sulfated saccharides from both red and green algae have been known to inhibit some DNA and RNA enveloped viruses.

Seaweed collecting is the process of collecting, drying and pressing seaweed. It was a popular pastime in the Victorian era and remains a hobby today. 

Seaweed is sometimes used to build roofs on houses on Læsø [http://naturalhomes.org/seaweed-house.htm]

Health risks 

Rotting seaweed is a potent source of hydrogen sulfide, a highly toxic gas, and has been implicated in some incidents of apparent hydrogen-sulphide poisoning.  It can cause vomiting and diarrhea.

Genera 

The following table lists a very few example genera of seaweed. Alginic acid, also called algin or alginate,  is an anionic polysaccharide distributed widely in the cell walls of brown algae, where through binding with water it forms a viscous gum. It is also a significant component of the biofilms produced by the bacterium Pseudomonas aeruginosa, the major pathogen in cystic fibrosis,  that confer it a high resistance to antibiotics  and killing by macrophages.   Its colour ranges from white to yellowish-brown. It is sold in filamentous, granular or powdered forms.

Structure

Alginic acid is a linear copolymer with homopolymeric blocks of (1-4)-linked β-D-mannuronate (M) and its C-5 epimer α-L-guluronate (G) residues, respectively, covalently linked together in different sequences or blocks.
The monomers can appear in homopolymeric blocks of consecutive G-residues (G-blocks), consecutive M-residues (M-blocks) or alternating M and G-residues (MG-blocks).

Forms

Alginates are refined from brown seaweeds. A wide variety of brown seaweeds of the phylum Phaeophyceae are harvested throughout the world to be converted into the raw material commonly known as sodium alginate. Sodium alginate has a wide use across a wide variety of industries including food, textile printing and pharmaceutical. Dental impression material utilizes alginate as its means of gelling. Alginate is both food and skin safe.

Seaweeds can be classified into three broad groups based on pigmentation: brown, red and green. These broad groups are the Phaeophyceae, Rhodophyceae and Chlorophyceae, respectively. Brown seaweeds are usually large, and range from the giant kelp Macrocystis pyrifera that is often 20 m long, to thick, leather-like seaweeds from 2-4 m long, to smaller species 30–60 cm long. None of the usual seaweeds for alginate production are cultivated. They cannot be grown by vegetative means, but must go through a reproductive cycle involving an alternation of generations. This makes cultivated brown seaweeds too expensive when compared to the costs of harvesting and transporting wild seaweeds. The only exception is for Laminaria japonica, which is cultivated in China for food but the surplus material is diverted to the alginate industry in China.

Alginates from different species of brown seaweed often have variations in their chemical structure, resulting in different physical properties. For example, some may yield an alginate that gives a strong gel, another a weaker gel; some may readily give a cream/white alginate, while others are difficult to gel, and are best used for technical applications where color does not matter. 

Commercial varieties of alginate are extracted from seaweed, including the giant kelp Macrocystis pyrifera, Ascophyllum nodosum, and various types of Laminaria. It is also produced by two bacterial genera Pseudomonas and Azotobacter, which played a major role in the unravelling of its biosynthesis pathway. Bacterial alginates are useful for the production of micro- or nanostructures suitable for medical applications.

The chemical compound sodium alginate is the sodium salt of alginic acid. Its empirical formula is NaC6H7O6.  Sodium alginate is a gum, extracted from the cell walls of brown algae.

Potassium alginate is a chemical compound that is the potassium salt of alginic acid. It is an extract of seaweed.  Its empirical chemical formula is KC6H7O6.

Calcium alginate, made from sodium alginate from which the sodium salt has been removed and replaced with calcium, has the chemical formula C12H14CaO12.

Production

The processes for the manufacture of sodium alginate from brown seaweeds fall into two categories: 1) Calcium alginate method and, 2) Alginic acid method. The chemistry of the processes used to make sodium alginate from brown seaweeds is relatively simple. The difficulties of the processes arise from the physical separations which are required, such as the need to filter slimy residues from viscous solutions or to separate gelatinous precipitates which hold large amounts of liquid within the structure and which resist filtration and centrifugation. 

Uses

Alginate absorbs water quickly, which makes it useful as an additive in dehydrated products such as slimming aids, and in the manufacture of paper and textiles. It is also used for waterproofing and fireproofing fabrics, in the food industry as a thickening agent for drinks, ice cream and cosmetics, and as a gelling agent for jellies.

Alginate is used as an ingredient in various pharmaceutical preparations, such as Gaviscon, in which it combines with bicarbonate to inhibit reflux. Sodium alginate is used as an impression-making material in dentistry, prosthetics, lifecasting and for creating positives for small-scale casting. 

Sodium alginate is used in reactive dye printing and as a thickener for reactive dyes in textile screen-printing. Alginates do not react with these dyes and wash out easily, unlike starch-based thickeners.

As a material for micro-encapsulation. 

Calcium alginate is used in different types of medical products including skin wound dressings to promote healing  and can be removed with less pain than conventional dressings. Algae (; singular alga) is an informal term for a large, diverse group of photosynthetic organisms which are not necessarily closely related and are thus polyphyletic. Included organisms range from unicellular genera, such as Chlorella and the diatoms, to multicellular forms, such as the giant kelp, a large brown alga which may grow up to 50 meters in length. Most are aquatic and autotrophic and lack many of the distinct cell and tissue types, such as stomata, xylem and phloem, which are found in land plants. The largest and most complex marine algae are called seaweeds, while the most complex freshwater forms are the Charophyta, a division of green algae which includes, for example, Spirogyra and the stoneworts.

There is no generally accepted definition of algae. One definition is that algae "have chlorophyll as their primary photosynthetic pigment and lack a sterile covering of cells around their reproductive cells".  Some authors exclude all prokaryotes  and thus do not consider cyanobacteria (blue-green algae) as algae. 

Algae constitute a polyphyletic group since they do not include a common ancestor, and although their plastids seem to have a single origin, from cyanobacteria,  they were acquired in different ways. Green algae are examples of algae that have primary chloroplasts derived from endosymbiotic cyanobacteria. Diatoms and brown algae are examples of algae with secondary chloroplasts derived from an endosymbiotic red alga. 

Algae exhibit a wide range of reproductive strategies, from simple asexual cell division to complex forms of sexual reproduction. 

Algae lack the various structures that characterize land plants, such as the phyllids (leaf-like structures) of bryophytes, rhizoids in nonvascular plants, and the roots, leaves, and other organs that are found in tracheophytes (vascular plants). Most are phototrophic, although some are mixotrophic, deriving energy both from photosynthesis and uptake of organic carbon either by osmotrophy, myzotrophy, or phagotrophy. Some unicellular species of green algae, many golden algae, euglenids, dinoflagellates and other algae have become heterotrophs (also called colorless or apochlorotic algae), sometimes parasitic, relying entirely on external energy sources and have limited or no photosynthetic apparatus.    Some other heterotrophic organisms, like the apicomplexans, are also derived from cells whose ancestors possessed plastids, but are not traditionally considered as algae. Algae have photosynthetic machinery ultimately derived from cyanobacteria that produce oxygen as a by-product of photosynthesis, unlike other photosynthetic bacteria such as purple and green sulfur bacteria. Fossilized filamentous algae from the Vindhya basin have been dated back to 1.6 to 1.7 billion years ago. 

Etymology and study

The singular alga is the Latin word for "seaweed" and retains that meaning in English.  The etymology is obscure. Although some speculate that it is related to Latin algēre, "be cold",  there is no known reason to associate seaweed with temperature. A more likely source is alliga, "binding, entwining." 

The Ancient Greek word for seaweed was φῦκος (fūkos or phykos), which could mean either the seaweed (probably red algae) or a red dye derived from it. The Latinization, fūcus, meant primarily the cosmetic rouge. The etymology is uncertain, but a strong candidate has long been some word related to the Biblical פוך (pūk), "paint" (if not that word itself), a cosmetic eye-shadow used by the ancient Egyptians and other inhabitants of the eastern Mediterranean. It could be any color: black, red, green, blue. 

Accordingly, the modern study of marine and freshwater algae is called either phycology or algology, depending on whether the Greek or Latin root is used. The name Fucus appears in a number of taxa.

Classification

Most algae contain chloroplasts that are similar in structure to cyanobacteria. Chloroplasts contain circular DNA like that in cyanobacteria and presumably represent reduced endosymbiotic cyanobacteria. However, the exact origin of the chloroplasts is different among separate lineages of algae, reflecting their acquisition during different endosymbiotic events. The table below describes the composition of the three major groups of algae. Their lineage relationships are shown in the figure in the upper right. Many of these groups contain some members that are no longer photosynthetic. Some retain plastids, but not chloroplasts, while others have lost plastids entirely.

Phylogeny based on plastid  not nucleocytoplasmic genealogy:

Linnaeus, in Species Plantarum (1753),  the starting point for modern botanical nomenclature, recognized 14 genera of algae, of which only 4 are currently considered among algae.  In Systema Naturae, Linnaeus described the genera Volvox, Corallina and a species of Acetabularia (as Madrepora), among the animals.

In 1768, Samuel Gottlieb Gmelin (1744–1774) published the Historia Fucorum, the first work dedicated to marine algae and the first book on marine biology to use the then new binomial nomenclature of Linnaeus. It included elaborate illustrations of seaweed and marine algae on folded leaves.  

W.H.Harvey (1811—1866) and Lamouroux (1813)  were the first to divide macroscopic algae into four divisions based on their pigmentation. This is the first use of a biochemical criterion in plant systematics. Harvey's four divisions are: red algae (Rhodospermae), brown algae (Melanospermae), green algae (Chlorospermae) and Diatomaceae.  

At this time, microscopic algae were discovered and reported by a different group of workers (e.g., O. F. Müller and Ehrenberg) studying the Infusoria (microscopic organisms). Unlike macroalgae, which were clearly viewed as plants, microalgae were frequently considered animals because they are often motile.  Even the non-motile (coccoid) microalgae were sometimes merely seen as stages of the life cycle of plants, macroalgae or animals.  

Although used as a taxonomic category in some pre-Darwinian classifications, e.g., Linnaeus (1753), de Jussieu (1789), Horaninow (1843), Agassiz (1859), Wilson & Cassin (1864), in further classifications, the "algae" are seen as an artificial, polyphyletic group.

Throughout the 20th century, most classifications treated the following groups as divisions or classes of algae: cyanophytes, rhodophytes, chrysophytes, xanthophytes, bacillariophytes, phaeophytes, pyrrhophytes (cryptophytes and dinophytes), euglenophytes and chlorophytes. Later, many new groups were discovered (e.g., Bolidophyceae), and others were splintered from older groups: charophytes and glaucophytes (from chlorophytes), many heterokontophytes (e.g., synurophytes from chrysophytes, or eustigmatophytes from xanthophytes), haptophytes (from chrysophytes) and chlorarachniophytes (from xanthophytes).

With the abandonment of plant-animal dichotomous classification, most groups of algae (sometimes all) were included in Protista, later also abandoned in favour of Eukaryota. However, as a legacy of the older plant life scheme, some groups that were also treated as protozoans in the past still have duplicated classifications (see ambiregnal protists).

Some parasitic algae (e.g., the green algae Prototheca and Helicosporidium, parasites of metazoans, or Cephaleuros, parasites of plants) were originally classified as fungi, sporozoans or protistans of incertae sedis,  while others (e.g., the green algae Phyllosiphon and Rhodochytrium, parasites of plants, or the red algae Pterocladiophila and Gelidiocolax mammillatus, parasites of other red algae, or the dinoflagellates Oodinium, parasites of fish) had their relationship with algae conjectured early. In other cases, some groups were originally characterized as parasitic algae (e.g., Chlorochytrium), but later were seen as endophytic algae.  Furthermore, groups like the apicomplexans are also parasites derived from ancestors that possessed plastids, but are not included in any group traditionally seen as algae.

Relationship to land plants

The first land plants probably evolved from shallow freshwater charophyte algae much like Chara almost 500 million years ago. These probably had an isomorphic alternation of generations and were probably filamentous. Fossils of isolated land plant spores suggest land plants may have been around as long as 475 million years ago.  

Morphology

A range of algal morphologies are exhibited, and convergence of features in unrelated groups is common. The only groups to exhibit three-dimensional multicellular thalli are the reds and browns, and some chlorophytes.  Apical growth is constrained to subsets of these groups: the florideophyte reds, various browns, and the charophytes. The form of charophytes is quite different from those of reds and browns, because they have distinct nodes, separated by internode 'stems'; whorls of branches reminiscent of the horsetails occur at the nodes. Conceptacles are another polyphyletic trait; they appear in the coralline algae and the Hildenbrandiales, as well as the browns.

Most of the simpler algae are unicellular flagellates or amoeboids, but colonial and non-motile forms have developed independently among several of the groups. Some of the more common organizational levels, more than one of which may occur in the life cycle of a species, are
* Colonial: small, regular groups of motile cells
* Capsoid: individual non-motile cells embedded in mucilage
* Coccoid: individual non-motile cells with cell walls
* Palmelloid: non-motile cells embedded in mucilage
* Filamentous: a string of non-motile cells connected together, sometimes branching
* Parenchymatous: cells forming a thallus with partial differentiation of tissues

In three lines, even higher levels of organization have been reached, with full tissue differentiation. These are the brown algae, —some of which may reach 50 m in length (kelps) —the red algae,  and the green algae.  The most complex forms are found among the green algae (see Charales and Charophyta), in a lineage that eventually led to the higher land plants. The point where these non-algal plants begin and algae stop is usually taken to be the presence of reproductive organs with protective cell layers, a characteristic not found in the other alga groups.

Physiology

Many algae, particularly members of the Characeae,  have served as model experimental organisms to understand the mechanisms of the water permeability of membranes, osmoregulation, turgor regulation, salt tolerance, cytoplasmic streaming, and the generation of action potentials.

Phytohormones are found not only in higher plants, but in algae too. 

Symbiotic algae

Some species of algae form symbiotic relationships with other organisms. In these symbioses, the algae supply photosynthates (organic substances) to the host organism providing protection to the algal cells. The host organism derives some or all of its energy requirements from the algae. Examples are as follows.

Lichens

Lichens are defined by the International Association for Lichenology to be "an association of a fungus and a photosynthetic symbiont resulting in a stable vegetative body having a specific structure."  The fungi, or mycobionts, are mainly from the Ascomycota with a few from the Basidiomycota. They are not found alone in nature; but when they began to associate is not known.  One mycobiont associates with the same phycobiont species, rarely two, from the green algae, except that alternatively the mycobiont may associate with a species of cyanobacteria (hence "photobiont" is the more accurate term). A photobiont may be associated with many different mycobionts or may live independently; accordingly, lichens are named and classified as fungal species.  The association is termed a morphogenesis because the lichen has a form and capabilities not possessed by the symbiont species alone (they can be experimentally isolated). It is possible that the photobiont triggers otherwise latent genes in the mycobiont. 

Coral reefs

 Coral reefs are accumulated from the calcareous exoskeletons of marine invertebrates of the order Scleractinia (stony corals). These animals metabolize sugar and oxygen to obtain energy for their cell-building processes, including secretion of the exoskeleton, with water and carbon dioxide as byproducts. Dinoflagellates (algal protists) are often endosymbionts in the cells of the coral-forming marine invertebrates, where they accelerate host-cell metabolism by generating immediately available sugar and oxygen through photosynthesis using incident light and the carbon dioxide produced by the host. Reef-building stony corals (hermatypic corals) require endosymbiotic algae from the genus Symbiodinium to be in a healthy condition.  The loss of Symbiodinium from the host is known as coral bleaching, a condition which leads to the deterioration of a reef.

Sea sponges

Green algae live close to the surface of some sponges, for example, breadcrumb sponge (Halichondria panicea). The alga is thus protected from predators; the sponge is provided with oxygen and sugars which can account for 50 to 80% of sponge growth in some species. 

Life-cycle

Rhodophyta, Chlorophyta and Heterokontophyta, the three main algal divisions, have life-cycles which show considerable variation and complexity. In general, there is an asexual phase where the seaweed's cells are diploid, a sexual phase where the cells are haploid followed by fusion of the male and female gametes. Asexual reproduction permits efficient population increases, but less variation is possible. Commonly, in sexual reproduction of unicellular and colonial algae, two specialized sexually compatible haploid gametes make physical contact and fuse to form a zygote. To ensure a successful mating, the development and release of gametes is highly synchronized and regulated; pheromones may play a key role in these processes.  Sexual reproduction allows for more variation and provides the benefit of efficient recombinational repair of DNA damages during meiosis, a key stage of the sexual cycle.  However, sexual reproduction is more costly than asexual reproduction.  Meiosis has been shown to occur in many different species of algae. 

Numbers

The Algal Collection of the US National Herbarium (located in the National Museum of Natural History) consists of approximately 320,500 dried specimens, which, although not exhaustive (no exhaustive collection exists), gives an idea of the order of magnitude of the number of algal species (that number remains unknown).  Estimates vary widely. For example, according to one standard textbook,  in the British Isles the UK Biodiversity Steering Group Report estimated there to be 20000 algal species in the UK. Another checklist reports only about 5000 species. Regarding the difference of about 15000 species, the text concludes: "It will require many detailed field surveys before it is possible to provide a reliable estimate of the total number of species ..."

Regional and group estimates have been made as well:
* 5000–5500 species of red algae worldwide
* "some 1300 in Australian Seas" 
* 400 seaweed species for the western coastline of South Africa,  and 212 species from the coast of KwaZulu-Natal.  Some of these are duplicates, as the range extends across both coasts, and the total recorded is probably about 500 species. Most of these are listed in List of seaweeds of South Africa. These exclude phytoplankton and crustose corallines.
* 669 marine species from California (US) 
* 642 in the check-list of Britain and Ireland 
and so on, but lacking any scientific basis or reliable sources, these numbers have no more credibility than the British ones mentioned above. Most estimates also omit microscopic algae, such as phytoplankton.

The most recent estimate suggests 72,500 algal species worldwide. 

Distribution

The distribution of algal species has been fairly well studied since the founding of phytogeography in the mid-19th century AD. Algae spread mainly by the dispersal of spores analogously to the dispersal of Plantae by seeds and spores. This dispersal can be accomplished by air, water, or other organisms. Due to this, spores can be found in a variety of environments: fresh and marine waters, air, soil, and in or on other organisms. Whether a spore is to grow into an organism depends on the combination of the species and the environmental conditions of where the spore lands.

The spores of fresh-water algae are dispersed mainly by running water and wind, as well as by living carriers. However, not all bodies of water can carry all species of algae, as the chemical composition of certain water bodies will limit the algae that can survive within it. Marine spores are often spread by ocean currents. Ocean water presents many vastly-different habitats based on temperature and nutrient-availability, resulting in phytogeographic zones, regions and provinces. 

To some degree, the distribution of algae is subject to floristic discontinuities caused by geographical features, such as Antarctica, long distances of ocean or general land masses. It is therefore possible to identify species occurring by locality, such as "Pacific Algae" or "North Sea Algae". When they occur out of their localities, it is usually possible to hypothesize a transport mechanism, such as the hulls of ships. For example, Ulva reticulata and Ulva fasciata travelled from the mainland to Hawaii in this manner.

Mapping is possible for select species only: "there are many valid examples of confined distribution patterns."  For example, Clathromorphum is an arctic genus and is not mapped far south of there.  On the other hand, scientists regard the overall data as insufficient due to the "difficulties of undertaking such studies." 

Ecology

Algae are prominent in bodies of water, common in terrestrial environments and are found in unusual environments, such as on snow and on ice. Seaweeds grow mostly in shallow marine waters, under 100 m; however, some have been recorded to a depth of 360 m. 

The various sorts of algae play significant roles in aquatic ecology. Microscopic forms that live suspended in the water column (phytoplankton) provide the food base for most marine food chains. In very high densities (algal blooms) these algae may discolor the water and outcompete, poison, or asphyxiate other life forms.

Algae can be used as indicator organisms to monitor pollution in various aquatic systems. In many cases, algal metabolism is sensitive to various pollutants. Due to this, the species composition of algal populations may shift in the presence of chemical pollutants. To detect these changes, algae can be sampled from the environment and maintained in laboratories with relative ease.

On the basis of their habitat, algae can be categorized as: aquatic (planktonic, benthic, marine, freshwater), terrestrial, aerial (subareial),  lithophytic, halophytic (or euryhaline), psammon, thermophilic, cryophilic, epibiont (epiphytic, epizoic), endosymbiont (endophytic, endozoic), parasitic, calcifilic or lichenic (phycobiont). 

Cultural associations

In Classical Chinese, the word  is used both for "algae" and (in the modest tradition of the imperial scholars) for "literary talent". The third island in Kunming Lake beside the Summer Palace in Beijing is known as the Zaojian Tang Dao which thus simultaneously means "Island of the Algae-Viewing Hall" and "Island of the Hall for Reflecting on Literary Talent".

Uses

Agar

Agar, a gelatinous substance derived from red algae, has a number of commercial uses.  It is a good medium on which to grow bacteria and fungi as most microorganisms cannot digest agar.

Alginates

Alginic acid, or alginate, is extracted from brown algae. Its uses range from gelling agents in food, to medical dressings. Alginic acid also has been used in the field of biotechnology as a biocompatible medium for cell encapsulation and cell immobilization. Molecular cuisine is also a user of the substance for its gelling properties, by which it becomes a delivery vehicle for flavours.

Between 100,000 and 170,000 wet tons of Macrocystis are harvested annually in New Mexico for alginate extraction and abalone feed.  

Energy source

To be competitive and independent from fluctuating support from (local) policy on the long run, biofuels should equal or beat the cost level of fossil fuels. Here, algae based fuels hold great promise,   directly related to the potential to produce more biomass per unit area in a year than any other form of biomass. The break-even point for algae-based biofuels is estimated to occur by 2025. 

Fertilizer

For centuries, seaweed has been used as a fertilizer; George Owen of Henllys writing in the 16th century referring to drift weed in South Wales: This kind of ore they often gather and lay on great heapes, where it heteth and rotteth, and will have a strong and loathsome smell; when being so rotten they cast on the land, as they do their muck, and thereof springeth good corn, especially barley ... After spring-tydes or great rigs of the sea, they fetch it in sacks on horse backes, and carie the same three, four, or five miles, and cast it on the lande, which doth very much better the ground for corn and grass.

Today, algae are used by humans in many ways; for example, as fertilizers, soil conditioners and livestock feed.  Aquatic and microscopic species are cultured in clear tanks or ponds and are either harvested or used to treat effluents pumped through the ponds. Algaculture on a large scale is an important type of aquaculture in some places. Maerl is commonly used as a soil conditioner.

Nutrition

Naturally growing seaweeds are an important source of food, especially in Asia. They provide many vitamins including: A, B1, B2, B6, niacin and C, and are rich in iodine, potassium, iron, magnesium and calcium.  In addition commercially cultivated microalgae, including both algae and cyanobacteria, are marketed as nutritional supplements, such as Spirulina, Chlorella and the Vitamin-C supplement, Dunaliella, high in beta-carotene.

Algae are national foods of many nations: China consumes more than 70 species, including fat choy, a cyanobacterium considered a vegetable; Japan, over 20 species;  Ireland, dulse; Chile, cochayuyo.  Laver is used to make "laver bread" in Wales where it is known as bara lawr; in Korea, gim; in Japan, nori and aonori. It is also used along the west coast of North America from California to British Columbia, in Hawaii and by the Māori of New Zealand. Sea lettuce and badderlocks are a salad ingredient in Scotland, Ireland, Greenland and Iceland.

The oils from some algae have high levels of unsaturated fatty acids. For example, Parietochloris incisa is very high in arachidonic acid, where it reaches up to 47% of the triglyceride pool.  Some varieties of algae favored by vegetarianism and veganism contain the long-chain, essential omega-3 fatty acids, docosahexaenoic acid (DHA) and eicosapentaenoic acid (EPA). Fish oil contains the omega-3 fatty acids, but the original source is algae (microalgae in particular), which are eaten by marine life such as copepods and are passed up the food chain.  Algae have emerged in recent years as a popular source of omega-3 fatty acids for vegetarians who cannot get long-chain EPA and DHA from other vegetarian sources such as flaxseed oil, which only contains the short-chain alpha-linolenic acid (ALA).

Pollution control

* Sewage can be treated with algae, reducing the usage of large amounts of toxic chemicals that would otherwise be needed.
* Algae can be used to capture fertilizers in runoff from farms. When subsequently harvested, the enriched algae itself can be used as fertilizer.
* Aquariums and ponds can be filtered using algae, which absorb nutrients from the water in a device called an algae scrubber, also known as an algae turf scrubber (A T S) .    

Agricultural Research Service scientists found that 60–90% of nitrogen runoff and 70–100% of phosphorus runoff can be captured from manure effluents using a horizontal algae scrubber, also called an algal turf scrubber (ATS). Scientists developed the ATS, which consists of shallow, 100-foot raceways of nylon netting where algae colonies can form, and studied its efficacy for three years. They found that algae can readily be used to reduce the nutrient runoff from agricultural fields and increase the quality of water flowing into rivers, streams, and oceans. Researchers collected and dried the nutrient-rich algae from the ATS and studied its potential as an organic fertilizer. They found that cucumber and corn seedlings grew just as well using ATS organic fertilizer as they did with commercial fertilizers.  Algae scrubbers, using bubbling upflow or vertical waterfall versions, are now also being used to filter aquariums and ponds.

Bioremediation

The alga Stichococcus bacillaris, has been seen to colonize silicone resins used at archaeological sites; biodegrading the synthetic substance. 

Pigments

The natural pigments (carotenoids and chlorophylls) produced by algae can be used as an alternative to chemical dyes and coloring agents. 
The presence of some individual alga pigments, together with specific pigment concentrations ratios, are taxon-specific: analysis of their concentrations with various analytical methods, particularly high-performance liquid chromatography (HPLC), can therefore offer deep insight into the taxonomic composition and relative abundance of natural alga populations in sea water samples.  

Stabilizing substances

Carrageenan, from the red alga Chondrus crispus, is used as a stabilizer in milk products.
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Kelp
 What type of seaweed grows up to one hundred meters in length and is fart for its algae. 

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