| Ulva prolifera | |
|---|---|
Scientific classification  | |
| (unranked): | Viridiplantae |
| Division: | Chlorophyta |
| Class: | Ulvophyceae |
| Order: | Ulvales |
| Family: | Ulvaceae |
| Genus: | Ulva |
| Species: | U. prolifera |
| Binomial name | |
| Ulva prolifera O.F.Müller | |
| Synonyms | |
| |
| Ulva prolifera | |
|---|---|
| Scientific classification | |
| (unranked): | Viridiplantae |
| Division: | Chlorophyta |
| Class: | Ulvophyceae |
| Order: | Ulvales |
| Family: | Ulvaceae |
| Genus: | Ulva |
| Species: | U. prolifera |
| Binomial name | |
| Ulva prolifera O.F.Müller | |
| Synonyms | |
| |
Ulva prolifera (U. prolifera), sometimes also referred as Enteromorpha prolifera, or branched string lettuce, is a species of seaweed algae in the family Ulvaceae that can be found worldwide. [1] This marine alga species is visually filamentous and intertwined together by accumulation after the algae bloom. However, this species is actually in tubular form and can grow to half to several meters in length. [2] [3] Typically its diameter does not exceed 5 mm, the actual growth parameters of Ulva prolifera depend on the magnitude of the algal bloom that it is associated with. Its color spans from light green to the color of grass. This species can be found at the coastline after being carried onto the seashore after low tides as it floats along the movements of the seawater.
In Europe, it can be found in such countries as Bulgaria, France, Great Britain, Greece, Ireland, Portugal, Romania, Slovenia, Spain and on Lolland island of Denmark. [1] It is also common on African islands such as Canary and Madeira islands, and in the US states such as Alaska, California, Florida, Texas and Washington. Besides the states, Africa and Europe, it is common in Central American countries such as Costa Rica, El Salvador, Panama, and Cuba, with Mexico occasionally getting them on the Pacific side. [1]
The species mostly occurs as wild algae, although some are cultivated in Japan, Korea, China and other countries. [4] China had its largest recorded bloom of the algae in 2013, in the Yellow Sea off the coast of Qingdao. [5]
The green tides caused by the overgrowth of Ulva prolifera in the Yellow Sea of China have been occurring every summer since 2007. The green tide is a major environmental concern that involves the impacts from natural, anthropogenic, physicochemical and algae factors along with the warming of local water. The dynamics of these factors [6] can explain the sudden bloom of U. prolifera off the east coast of China in 2007. This continued as an annual problem for about a decade and caught additional attention in 2008, when the sailing games of the Beijing Olympics was hosted in the city of Qingdao and the green tides can cause great economical and ecological impacts. [6] Every spring since 2007, U. prolifera have initially occurred along the Jiangsu coast with small-scale floating algae, then migrated northward along the coast of the Yellow Sea driven by monsoons and ocean currents, accumulating in the near-shore waters of the Shandong Peninsula in June and July, and then declined gradually. Analysis of meteorological and environmental data and local aquaculture activities strongly supports the hypothesis that the U. prolifera blooms in the Yellow Sea originated from the water off of the coast of Jiangsu. [7] Due to the development of Porphyra yezoensis aquaculture and the excess nutrients deployed for its growth, the water condition is made suitable for algal bloom and green tides when the appropriate seasons come. After harvesting of P. yezoensis and cleaning of ropes, rafts and other attachments, the thalli of U. prolifera were scraped and thrown away by farmers. The free-floating U. prolifera kept growing and drifted to the northern part of Yellow Sea by tides and winds. [7] Such activities give the starting population of such organisms which can reproduce and populate vast areas on top of the ocean.
Overgrowing algae bloom at the surface of seawater is an environmental hazard to the coastal underwater biome. Surface algae overextension can block the entry of sunlight below the infected water region, creating a much shallower aphotic zone. The disappearance of sunlight can be fatal for the plants and organisms living below the surface that require sunlight. Phytoplankton photosynthesis will be heavily reduced due to the lack of sunlight which is caused by the overgrowing algae blockade. Insufficient primary production in an ocean biome is devastating for maintaining the local food web.
Additionally, algal respiration is increased for such algal explosion in biomass. The lack of oxygen in the local water area is harmful for all living organisms. The algae washed ashore is also an environmental hazard during degradation by releasing noxious smell into the air. Accumulation of overgrown algae like U. polifera is not only harmful for the environment but also local underwater biome and tourism value.
Traditionally, the most direct and intuitive way of blooming algae moving onshore is collecting them from the coast and dispose, or setting up nets offshore to stop the green tide from approaching the coast. Nowadays, there is research being done on the usage of microbial complex formulation spray that promotes rapid degradation. [8]
The species have common names in other countries of the world:
Algae are any of a large and diverse group of photosynthetic, eukaryotic organisms. The name is an informal term for a polyphyletic grouping that includes species from multiple distinct clades. Included organisms range from unicellular microalgae, such as Chlorella, Prototheca and the diatoms, to multicellular forms, such as the giant kelp, a large brown alga which may grow up to 50 metres (160 ft) in length. Most are aquatic and lack many of the distinct cell and tissue types, such as stomata, xylem and phloem that 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 stoneworts. Algae that are carried by water are plankton, specifically phytoplankton.
An algal bloom or algae bloom is a rapid increase or accumulation in the population of algae in freshwater or marine water systems. It is often recognized by the discoloration in the water from the algae's pigments. 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. An example of a macroscopic algal bloom is a kelp forest.
The Yellow Sea, also known as North Sea, is a marginal sea of the Western Pacific Ocean located between mainland China and the Korean Peninsula, and can be considered the northwestern part of the East China Sea. It is one of four seas named after common colour terms, and its name is descriptive of the golden-yellow color of the silt-ridden water discharged from major rivers.
Eutrophication is a general term describing a process in which nutrients accumulate in a body of water, resulting in an increased growth of microorganisms that may deplete the water of oxygen. Although eutrophication is a natural process, manmade or cultural eutrophication is far more common and is a rapid process caused by a variety of polluting inputs including poorly treated sewage, industrial wastewater, and fertilizer runoff. Such nutrient pollution usually causes algal blooms and bacterial growth, resulting in the depletion of dissolved oxygen in water and causing substantial environmental degradation.
The sea lettuces comprise the genus Ulva, a group of edible green algae that is widely distributed along the coasts of the world's oceans. The type species within the genus Ulva is Ulva lactuca, lactuca being Latin for "lettuce". The genus also includes the species previously classified under the genus Enteromorpha, the former members of which are known under the common name green nori.
Sargassum is a genus of brown macroalgae (seaweed) in the order Fucales of the Phaeophyceae class. Numerous species are distributed throughout the temperate and tropical oceans of the world, where they generally inhabit shallow water and coral reefs, and the genus is widely known for its planktonic (free-floating) species. Most species within the class Phaeophyceae are predominantly cold-water organisms that benefit from nutrients upwelling, but the genus Sargassum appears to be an exception. Any number of the normally benthic species may take on a planktonic, often pelagic existence after being removed from reefs during rough weather. Two species have become holopelagic—reproducing vegetatively and never attaching to the seafloor during their lifecycles. The Atlantic Ocean's Sargasso Sea was named after the algae, as it hosts a large amount of Sargassum.
Ascophyllum nodosum is a large, common cold water seaweed or brown alga (Phaeophyceae) in the family Fucaceae. Its common names include knotted wrack, egg wrack, feamainn bhuí, rockweed, knotted kelp and Norwegian kelp. It grows only in the northern Atlantic Ocean, along the north-western coast of Europe including east Greenland and the north-eastern coast of North America. Its range further south of these latitudes is limited by warmer ocean waters. It dominates the intertidal zone. Ascophyllum nodosum has been used numerous times in scientific research and has even been found to benefit humans through consumption.
Green laver, known as aonori in Japan, sea cabbage (海白菜) or hutai (滸苔) in China, and parae (파래) in Korean, is a type of edible green seaweed, including species from the genera Monostroma and Ulva. It is commercially cultivated in some bay areas in Japan, Korea, and Taiwan, such as Ise Bay. It is rich in minerals such as calcium, magnesium, lithium, vitamins, and amino acids such as methionine. It is also called aosa in some places in Japan.
Ulva lactuca, also known by the common name sea lettuce, is an edible green alga in the family Ulvaceae. It is the type species of the genus Ulva. A synonym is U. fenestrata, referring to its "windowed" or "holed" appearance, Despite the name, it is not a lettuce
Noctiluca scintillans is a marine species of dinoflagellate that can exist in a green or red form, depending on the pigmentation in its vacuoles. It can be found worldwide, but its geographical distribution varies depending on whether it is green or red. This unicellular microorganism is known for its ability to bioluminesce, giving the water a bright blue glow seen at night. However, blooms of this species can be responsible for environmental hazards, such as toxic red tides. They may also be an indicator of anthropogenic eutrophication.
The intertidal zone or foreshore is the area above water level at low tide and underwater at high tide: in other words, the part of the littoral zone within the tidal range. This area can include several types of habitats with various species of life, such as seastars, sea urchins, and many species of coral with regional differences in biodiversity. Sometimes it is referred to as the littoral zone or seashore, although those can be defined as a wider region.
Algaculture is a form of aquaculture involving the farming of species of algae.
Porphyra is a genus of coldwater seaweeds that grow in cold, shallow seawater. More specifically, it belongs to red algae phylum of laver species, comprising approximately 70 species. It grows in the intertidal zone, typically between the upper intertidal zone and the splash zone in cold waters of temperate oceans. In East Asia, it is used to produce the sea vegetable products nori and gim. There are considered to be 60–70 species of Porphyra worldwide and seven around Britain and Ireland, where it has been traditionally used to produce edible sea vegetables on the Irish Sea coast. The species Porphyra purpurea has one of the largest plastid genomes known, with 251 genes.
Caulerpa lentillifera or sea grape is a species of ulvophyte green algae from coastal regions in the Asia-Pacific. This seaweed is one of the favored species of edible Caulerpa due to its soft and succulent texture. It is traditionally eaten in the cuisines of Southeast Asia, Oceania, and East Asia. It was first commercially cultivated in the Philippines in the 1950s, followed by Japan in 1968. Both countries remain the top consumers of C. lentillifera. Its cultivation has since spread to other countries, including Vietnam, Taiwan, and China. C. lentillifera, along with C. racemosa, are also known as sea grapes or green caviar in English.
A harmful algal bloom (HAB), or excessive algae growth, is an algal bloom that causes negative impacts to other organisms by production of natural algae-produced toxins, mechanical damage to other organisms, or by other means. HABs are sometimes defined as only those algal blooms that produce toxins, and sometimes as any algal bloom that can result in severely lower oxygen levels in natural waters, killing organisms in marine or fresh waters. Blooms can last from a few days to many months. After the bloom dies, the microbes that decompose the dead algae use up more of the oxygen, generating a "dead zone" which can cause fish die-offs. When these zones cover a large area for an extended period of time, neither fish nor plants are able to survive. Harmful algal blooms in marine environments are often called "red tides".
Ulva linza is a green alga in the family Ulvaceae that can be found in British Isles.
Monostroma kuroshiense, a green alga in the division Chlorophyta, is a green seaweed endemic to Kuroshio Coast of Japan. This high-value seaweed is called Hitoegusa or Hirohano hitoegusa (ヒロハノヒトエグサ) in Japanese. Previously this algae was known in binomen Monostroma latissimum, but the latest scientific research based on multilocal phylogeny discovered that this is a new species. The algae is named after Kuroshio Current, naming is done by phycologist Felix Bast This algae is commercially cultivated in East Asia and South America for the edible product "hitoegusa-nori" or "hirohano-hitoegusa nori", popular sushi wraps. Monostroma oligosaccharides with degree of polymerization 6 prepared by agarase digestion from Monostroma nitidum polysaccharides have been shown to be an effective prophylactic agent during in vitro and in vivo tests against Japanese encephalitis viral infection. The sulfated oligosaccharides from Monostroma seem to be promising candidates for further development as antiviral agents. The genus Monostroma is the most widely cultivated genus among green seaweeds.
Ulva australis, the southern sea lettuce, is a species of bright green coloured seaweed in the family Ulvaceae that can be found in waters around Australia and was first described by Swedish botanist Johan Erhard Areschoug. It is an edible green algae, although sometimes designated as a seaweed. General characteristics of Ulva australis include a smooth surface, distromatic blades, lobed fronds, and thallus color from dark green to light grass green. It can be either free floating or attached by a single holdfast. Its cells appear to be irregularly arranged, have rounded edges, and have shapes such as rectilinear, square, and pentagonal.
Lepidodinium is a genus of dinoflagellates belonging to the family Gymnodiniaceae. Lepidodinium is a genus of green dinoflagellates in the family Gymnodiniales. It contains two different species, Lepidodiniumchlorophorum and Lepidodinium viride. They are characterised by their green colour caused by a plastid derived from Pedinophyceae, a green algae group. This plastid has retained chlorophyll a and b, which is significant because it differs from the chlorophyll a and c usually observed in dinoflagellate peridinin plastids. They are the only known dinoflagellate genus to possess plastids derived from green algae. Lepidodinium chlorophorum is known to cause sea blooms, partially off the coast of France, which has dramatic ecological and economic consequences. Lepidodinium produces some of the highest volumes of Transparent Exopolymer Particles of any phytoplankton, which can contribute to bivalve death and the creation of anoxic conditions in blooms, as well as playing an important role in carbon cycling in the ocean.
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