text: Silicate, or silicic acid (HSiO), is an important nutrient in the ocean. Unlike the other major nutrients such as phosphate, nitrate, or ammonium, which are needed by almost all marine plankton, silicate is an essential chemical requirement for very specific biota, including diatoms, radiolaria, silicoflagellates, and siliceous sponges. These organisms extract dissolved silicate from open ocean surface waters for the buildup of their particulate silica (SiO), or opaline, skeletal structures (i.e. the biota's hard parts). Some of the most common siliceous structures observed at the cell surface of silica-secreting organisms include: spicules, scales, solid plates, granules, frustules, and other elaborate geometric forms, depending on the species considered.