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| Trude | profile | all galleries >> crystal_cove_state_beach >> marine_algae_of_crystal_cove | tree view | thumbnails | slideshow |
 Come on a journey to explore the common seaweeds of Crystal Cove, Laguna Beach, CA |
 Algae are affected by the tides that come and go every 6 hours |
 Tidepools are a harsh environment that is nonetheless full of life |
 Algae cope with wave shock by attaching to rocks or mussels with a holdfast |
 Ribs on kelp blades help funnel water along. Some blades even stretch. |
 To prevent drying out, algae may grow in cracks where water remains |
 Some algae lose 70-90% of their body weight and still recover. This coralline algae didn't and is bleached white from the sun |
 To prevent being grazed, algae defend themselves with chemicals or tough bodies |
 Surfgrass is not an algae but a true flowering plant |
 Green algae contain the pigment chlorophyll which colors them grass green |
 A single-celled green algae lives in large sea anemones and makes them green! |
 Cladophora forms loose clumps or mats on tidepool rocks and resembles moss |
 Enteromorpha is long and stringy, only 2 cell layers thick |
 Red algae contain more red pigment phycoerythrin than chlorophyll, resulting in colors of pink, yellow-green, or dark brown |
 Coralline algae has a tough body but flexible joints |
 This red algae is covered with a colonial animal called a bryozoan |
 Brown algae combine chlorophyll and fucoxanthin to create brown, yellow or olive-green colors |
 Colpomenia is shaped like a hollow bubble |
 Rockweed has slender branching blades and swollen tips when mature |
 Egregia the Feather Boa Kelp has many short blades and floats along its length |
 Humans harvest Macrocystis the Giant Kelp for algin, a stabilizer in ice cream, toothpaste, paint and cosmetics |
 Storms and rough surf can rip algae from its holdfast... |
 ...and strand it on the beach along with other hapless creatures |
 Shorebirds like the Willet take advantage of this food source |
 Black Turnstones pick up brine flies and other small animals from stranded surfgrass |
 The Snowy Plover, a threatened species, feeds on small animals hiding among stranded algae |
 Look closely at stranded algae on the beach and you might discover bryozoans covering the algae's surface! |
 Take another look and you might find a lobster molt tangled in the stranded surfgrass |
 We invite you to explore the beach and tidepools for living and stranded marine algae! |
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| Guest | 12-Apr-2008 04:26 | |