Instruct: Given a question, retrieve documents that answer the question.
Query: Is seaweed a form of algae?
Seaweed or macroalgae refers to several species of macroscopic, multicellular, marine algae.[1] The term includes some types of red, brown, and green macroalgae. Marine algae species such as kelps provide essential nursery habitat for fisheries and other marine species and thus protect food sources; ocean algae species from seaweeds to planktons play a vital role in carbon capture, producing up to 90 percent of the planet's oxygen. Understanding these roles provides guiding principles for conservation and sustainable use of seaweeds to take precedence over industrial exploitation. Mechanical dredging of kelp, for instance, destroys the resource and dependent fisheries. Certain species of seaweed are valuable for nutrition, biomedicine, bioremediation, and other uses.
information on all aspects of algae, seaweed and marine algal biology , information on seaweed utilisation for the African continent. , a searchable taxonomic, image, and utilization database of freshwater, marine and terrestrial algae, including seaweed.
These brain-like brown seaweeds can be found growing on rock or as epiphytes on other seaweeds in the mid to low intertidal. Individuals can grow to ~ in diameter. Young individuals can resemble other globular forms of algae, such as "Soranthera ulvoidea". To determine if it is "Leathesia", squeeze and flatten a piece between your fingers. Leathesia will break apart into filaments whereas other globular forms will flatten but remain intact.
Wendy Alison Nelson is a New Zealand marine scientist and world expert in phycology. She is New Zealand's leading authority on seaweeds. Nelson is particularly interested in the biosystematics of seaweeds/macroalgae of New Zealand, with research on floristics, evolution and phylogeny, as well as ecology, and life history studies of marine algae. Recently she has worked on the systematics and biology of red algae including coralline algae, distribution and diversity of seaweeds in harbours and soft sediment habitats, and seaweeds of the Ross Sea and Balleny Islands.
An algae bioreactor is used for cultivating micro or macro algae. Algae may be cultivated for the purposes of biomass production (as in a seaweed cultivator), wastewater treatment, CO fixation, or aquarium/pond filtration in the form of an algae scrubber. Algae bioreactors vary widely in design, falling broadly into two categories: open reactors and enclosed reactors. Open reactors are exposed to the atmosphere while enclosed reactors, also commonly called photobioreactors, are isolated to varying extent from the atmosphere. Specifically, algae bioreactors can be used to produce fuels such as biodiesel and bioethanol, to generate animal feed, or to reduce pollutants such as NO and CO in flue gases of power plants. Fundamentally, this kind of bioreactor is based on the photosynthetic reaction which is performed by the chlorophyll-containing algae itself using dissolved carbon dioxide and sunlight energy. The carbon dioxide is dispersed into the reactor fluid to make it accessible for the algae. The bioreactor has to be made out of transparent material.
In Old Japanese, "me" stood for edible seaweeds in general as opposed to "mo" standing for algae. In kanji, such as 海藻, 軍布 and 和布 were applied to transcribe the word. Among seaweeds, wakame was likely most often eaten, therefore "me" especially meant wakame. It expanded later to other seaweeds like kajime, hirome (kombu), arame, etc. Wakame is derived from "waka" + "me" (若布, lit. young seaweed). If this "waka" is a eulogistic prefix, same as the "tama" of tamagushi, wakame likely stood for seaweeds widely in ancient ages. In Man'yōshū, in addition to 和可米 and 稚海藻 (both are read as "wakame"), "nigime" (和海藻, soft wakame) can be seen. Besides, "tamamo" (玉藻, lit. beautiful algae), which often appeared in Man'yo-shu, may be wakame depending on poems.
Most edible seaweeds are marine algae whereas most freshwater algae are toxic. Some marine algae contain acids that irritate the digestion canal, while some others can have a laxative and electrolyte-balancing effect. Most marine macroalgae are nontoxic in normal quantities, but members of the genus "Lyngbya" are potentially lethal. Typically poisoning is caused by eating fish which have fed on "Lyngbya" or on other fish which have done so. This is called ciguatura poisoning. Handling "Lyngbya majuscula" can also cause seaweed dermatitis. Some species of "Desmarestia" are highly acidic, with vacuoles of sulfuric acid that can cause severe gastrointestinal problems.
With the motives of seaweeds and sea, it succinctly expresses the earth that has seaweeds grow in clean water. The red color represents the development of red algae and seaweeds industry and the green color symbolizes green algae and clean natural environment, while the brown color stands for brown algae. Representing future on-farm resources and depicting the smoldering seaweeds, the shape symbolizes the unity of humankind and the wish to serve as a festive event for the whole humankind.
Closed on May 7, 2015 Wando Seaweeds Expo was visited by 937,000 or so people from home or abroad.
The singular alga is the Latin word for "seaweed" and retains that meaning in English.[12] The etymology is obscure. Although some speculate that it is related to Latin algēre, "be cold",[13] no reason is known to associate seaweed with temperature. A more likely source is alliga, "binding, entwining".[14]
Alternation of generations occurs in almost all multicellular red and green algae, both freshwater forms (such as "Cladophora") and seaweeds (such as "Ulva"). In most, the generations are homomorphic (isomorphic) and free-living. Some species of red algae have a complex triphasic alternation of generations, in which there is a gametophyte phase and two distinct sporophyte phases. For further information, see Red algae: Reproduction.
The majority of algae that are intentionally cultivated fall into the category of microalgae (also referred to as phytoplankton, microphytes, or planktonic algae). Macroalgae, commonly known as seaweed, also have many commercial and industrial uses, but due to their size and the specific requirements of the environment in which they need to grow, they do not lend themselves as readily to cultivation (this may change, however, with the advent of newer seaweed cultivators, which are basically algae scrubbers using upflowing air bubbles in small containers).
Seaweed is a generic name for various types of underwater algae.
Algae (/ˈældʒi, ˈælɡi/; singular alga /ˈælɡə/) is an informal term for a large, diverse group of photosynthetic eukaryotic organisms that are not necessarily closely related, and is thus polyphyletic. Including organisms ranging from unicellular microalgae genera, such as Chlorella and the diatoms, to multicellular forms, such as the giant kelp, a large brown alga which may grow up to 50m 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.
"Seaweed" is a colloquial term and lacks a formal definition. 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 farming is the practice of cultivating and harvesting seaweed. In its simplest form, it consists of the management of naturally found batches. In its most advanced form, it consists of fully controlling the life cycle of the algae. The main food species grown by aquaculture in Japan, China and Korea include "Gelidium", "Pterocladia", "Porphyra", and "Laminaria". Seaweed farming has frequently been developed as an alternative to improve economic conditions and to reduce fishing pressure and over exploited fisheries. Seaweeds have been harvested throughout the world as a food source as well as an export commodity for production of agar and carrageenan products.
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 (rice balls). 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 laverbread. Laverbread, made from the seaweed, and sometimes also with oat flour, 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").
Maggs worked as a postdoc at the Atlantic Research Laboratory, Nova Scotia, Canada and Queen's University Belfast (the latter on an Advanced Natural Environment Research Council Fellowship), before taking up a post as a lecturer at Queen's University Belfast in 1995. Her main research interests are molecular systematics of seaweeds with particular interests in alien marine algae and plants, biological conservation, and sustainable seaweed exploitation. The majority of her publications focus on red algae (Rhodophyta), although she has also published on brown algae and green algae, notably showing that Linnaeus was correct in his assertion that the genera "Ulva" and "Enteromorpha" were not distinct. She has described two new orders (Ahnfeltiales and Atractophorales) of alga, and three new families (Ahnfeltiaceae, Atractophoraceae, and Haemeschariaceae). She has published over a hundred peer-reviewed scientific papers.
She has written three books on seaweeds: "Seasearch Guide to Seaweeds of Britain and Ireland", "Green seaweeds of Britain and Ireland", and "Seaweeds of the British Isles".
Seaweed fuel or seaweed oil is an alternative to liquid fossil fuels that uses seaweed as its source of energy-rich oils. Like fossil fuel, seaweed fuel releases when burnt, but unlike fossil fuel, algae fuel and other biofuels only release recently removed from the atmosphere via photosynthesis as the seaweed or plant grew.
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 artificial seaweed filters such as algae scrubbers.
The land plants, or embryophytes, are thought to have emerged from the charophytes. Therefore, cladistically, embryophytes belong to green algae as well. However, because the embryophytes are traditionally classified as neither algae nor green algae, green algae are a paraphyletic group. Since the realization that the embryophytes emerged from within the green algae, some authors are starting to include them. The clade that includes both green algae and embryophytes is monophyletic and is referred to as the clade Viridiplantae and as the kingdom Plantae. The green algae include unicellular and colonial flagellates, most with two flagella per cell, as well as various colonial, coccoid and filamentous forms, and macroscopic, multicellular seaweeds. There are about 8,000 species of green algae. Many species live most of their lives as single cells, while other species form coenobia (colonies), long filaments, or highly differentiated macroscopic seaweeds.
Laverbread () is a food product, made from an edible seaweed (littoral alga), consumed mainly in Wales as part of local traditional cuisine. The seaweed is commonly found around the west coast of Great Britain and east coast of Ireland along the Irish Sea, where it is known as slake. It is smooth in texture and forms delicate, sheetlike thalli, often clinging to rocks. The principal variety is porphyra ("Porphyra umbilicalis"). Porphyra (laver seaweed) is classified as red algae; it tends to be a brownish colour, but boils down to a dark green pulp when prepared. Laver seaweed has a high content of dietary minerals, particularly iodine and iron. The high iodine content gives the seaweed a distinctive flavour in common with olives and oysters. 
The shorelines, especially the Great Barrier Reef, are providing motivation to help the continent by using seaweed (algae) to absorb nutrients. Because of the giant number of natural Australian seaweeds, not only could seaweed cultivation be used to help absorb nutrients around the GBR and other Australian shores, cultivation could also help feed a large part of the world. Even the Chinese, who could be considered far more advanced in seaweed cultivation, are interested in the future of Australian seaweeds. Lastly, the GBR itself, because of the delicate corals, has lent itself to utilizing seaweed/algae purposely as a nutrient reduction tool in the form of algae. This has occurred in the form of algae scrubbers, and seaweed cultivators, which are now available for domestic use worldwide.
AlgaeBase evolved from Michael Guiry's seaweed website, and has grown into a database of algae from throughout the world, and in freshwater, terrestrial, and brackish as well as marine habitats. By 2005, the database contained about 65,000 names, and by September 2006, 122,240 species and infraspecific names were in the database, with 5,826 images, 38,290 bibliographic items, 138,706 distributional records. Currently, the data for the marine algae, particularly seaweeds, are the most complete. About 30,000 species of algae are included, of which the Rhodophyta (6000 species), marine Chlorophyta (1500 species), and Phaeophyceae (1755 species) are the most complete. The diatoms and the smaller freshwater green algae are currently (August 2010) the most incomplete groups.
Algae comprise several different groups of organisms which produce food by photosynthesis and thus have traditionally been included in the plant kingdom. The seaweeds range from large multicellular algae to single-celled organisms and are classified into three groups, the brown, red and green algae. There is good evidence that the brown algae evolved independently from the others, from non-photosynthetic ancestors that formed endosymbiotic relationships with red algae rather than from cyanobacteria, and they are no longer classified as plants as defined here.
Algaculture Algae fuel Edible seaweed– Algae that can be eaten and used in the preparation of food Aonori Hijiki Kombu Mozuku Nori– Edible red algae of the genus Pyropia Ogonori Wakame Cochayuyo, a form of kelp used as a vegetable in Chile Sea lettuce Seaweed cultivator Seaweed dermatitis