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Seaweeds are different from mangroves and seagrasses, as they are photosynthetic algal organisms [107] and are non-flowering. [106] The largest seaweed-producing countries as of 2022 are China (58.62%) and Indonesia (28.6%); followed by South Korea (5.09%) and the Philippines (4.19%).
The term algae encompasses many types of aquatic photosynthetic organisms, both macroscopic multicellular organisms like seaweed and microscopic unicellular organisms like cyanobacteria. Algal bloom commonly refers to the rapid growth of microscopic unicellular algae, not macroscopic algae.
Photoautotrophs are organisms that can utilize light energy from sunlight and elements (such as carbon) from inorganic compounds to produce organic materials needed to sustain their own metabolism (i.e. autotrophy). Such biological activities are known as photosynthesis, and examples of such organisms include plants, algae and cyanobacteria.
Photosynthetic organisms with plastids of different origin (such as brown algae) do not belong to the Archaeplastida. The archaeplastidans fall into two main evolutionary lines. The red algae are pigmented with chlorophyll a and phycobiliproteins , like most cyanobacteria, and accumulate starch outside the chloroplasts.
Marine cyanobacteria include the smallest known photosynthetic organisms. The smallest of all, Prochlorococcus, is just 0.5 to 0.8 micrometres across. [45] 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.
The photosynthetic system of brown algae is made of a P700 complex containing chlorophyll a. Their plastids also contain chlorophyll c and carotenoids (the most widespread of those being fucoxanthin). [53] Brown algae produce a specific type of tannin called phlorotannins in higher amounts than red algae do.
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.
Green algae are a group of photosynthetic, eukaryotic organisms that include species with haplobiontic and diplobiontic life cycles. The diplobiontic species, such as Ulva , follow a reproductive cycle called alternation of generations in which two multicellular forms, haploid and diploid, alternate, and these may or may not be isomorphic ...