Algae

From Citizendium
Revision as of 22:08, 17 December 2011 by imported>Pat Palmer (mentioning phycology)
Jump to navigation Jump to search
This article is a stub and thus not approved.
Main Article
Discussion
Related Articles  [?]
Bibliography  [?]
External Links  [?]
Citable Version  [?]
 
This editable Main Article is under development and subject to a disclaimer.

Algae are a diverse group of organisms which are photosynthetic like plants and have unicellular forms, or simpler multicellular forms lacking the organs of land plants. The most complex marine forms are called seaweeds, including kelp. Algae sit at the bottom of the food chain, and thus all life depends on them.

The scientific study of algae is called phycology. Phycologists generally specialize in either freshwater or salt water algae, and either [[diatoms[[ or so-called ''soft algae'' (all those which are not diatoms).