INTRODUCTION TO SEAWEEDS

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INTRODUCTION TO SEAWEEDS

• MARINE BOTANY
• FALL 2009

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SEAWEEDSSEAVEGETABLES?

• Edible seaweeds
• Photosynthetic, non-vascular macroalgae found in
  estuarine and marine environments.
• Chlorophyta (green), Phaeophyceae (brown), and
  Rhodophyta (red)

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SEAVEGETABLES-WHY STUDY?

• Human Nutrition and Health
• Environment (bioabsorption, biomonitoring, and
  bioremediation)
• Energy-Biofuel
• Fertilizers and Feed, and other industrial
  applications
• We have lingered in the chambers of the seaBy
  sea-girls wreathed with seaweed red and
  brownTill human voices wake us, and we drown.
• Source The Love Song of J. Alfred Prufrock"
  was first published in 1917 in T. S. Eliot's book
  Prufrock and Other Observations.
• Poem, Seaweed by H.W. Longfellow,
  published in 1845

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SEAVEGETABLES OF INTEREST FROM THE COASTAL BAYS
OF THE DELMARVA PENINSULA
Ulva lactuca
Gracilaria tikvahiae
Fucus vesiculosus
Enteromorpha intestinalis
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SEAWEEDS AS AN ECOLOGICAL PROBLEM
Nutrient and sediment loads
Eutrophication
Water quality deteriorates
Death of organisms
Development of opportunistic and tolerant
seaweeds that act as a purifying system
Recycling of nutrients and pollutants in the
ecosystem
Anoxia
Photosynthesis declines
Increase in herbivore population
Environmental conditions become unfavorable and
seaweeds die and decompose
toxicity rises
Large biomass
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INTEGRATED PROJECT-TEACHING, RESEARCH, AND
EXTENSION

• MARINE BOTANY BIOL 202
• ---Research projects on seaweeds in
  Marine Botany
• ---Edible Algae Symposium-end of Fall
  semester