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Microalgae or microphytes are microscopic algae invisible to the naked eye. They are phytoplankton typically found in freshwater and marine systems, living in both the water column and sediment. [1] They are unicellular species which exist individually, or in chains or groups. Depending on the species, their sizes can range from a few ...
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. [91]
Algal bloom commonly refers to the rapid growth of microscopic unicellular algae, not macroscopic algae. An example of a macroscopic algal bloom is a kelp forest . Algal blooms are the result of a nutrient, like nitrogen or phosphorus from various sources (for example fertilizer runoff or other forms of nutrient pollution ), entering the ...
Harmful Algal blooms are colonies of microscopic algae that grow out of control. They can be damaging to people, wildlife and the environment. How harmful algal blooms, or colonies of microscopic ...
The term algae encompasses many types of aquatic photosynthetic organisms, both macroscopic multicellular organisms like seaweed and microscopic unicellular organisms like cyanobacteria. [2] Algal bloom commonly refers to the rapid growth of microscopic unicellular algae, not macroscopic algae. [ 3 ]
Green algae are often classified with their embryophyte descendants in the green plant clade Viridiplantae (or Chlorobionta). Viridiplantae, together with red algae and glaucophyte algae, form the supergroup Primoplantae, also known as Archaeplastida or Plantae sensu lato. The ancestral green alga was a unicellular flagellate. [20]
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.
Cosmarium is a large genus of desmids (Desmidiaceae), a group of green algae closely related to the land plants (Embryophyta). [1] [2] Members of this genus are microscopic and found in freshwater habitats around the world. [3] The name Cosmarium comes from the Greek word κοσμάριον - kosmarion, meaning a small ornament. [4]