### microalga | seaweed:

Brown seaweed
* Most brown seaweed contains iodine
  - knows as kelp
* has a number of anti-carcinogenic properties, as do pau d'arco and cat's claw.

Coastal seaweed
* Some coastal seaweed survive in warmer northern waters.
* are usually green in surface waters, red in shallow water, brown a little deeper.

Float seaweed
* finds in blue water.
* finds in clear blue water

Liquid seaweed
* contains many micronutrients.
* improves growth, increases yields and results in healthier, more productive plants.
* is also a good fertilizer that is rich in potassium and phosphate.

Red seaweed
* Some red seaweed has ranges
  - seaweeds are marketed as nutritional supplements
* have the largest number of species and the widest range of forms
  - most complicated life cycle

### microalga | seaweed:

Seagrass
* All seagrasses have horizontal stems and regular roots.
* Most seagrasses are euryhaline, meaning they can take a wide variety of salinities
  - restricted to muddy and sandy areas in the subtidal zone
* also help bind the sea floor and improve water quality
  - provide shelter for juvenile crabs, prawns and fish
  - serve as secondary sources for a variety of marine organisms
* are a nursery ground for pink shrimp, lobster, snapper and other sealife
  - adapted to their marine habitat
  - central to a web of life
  - easily scarred and take years to recover
  - ecosystem engineers in the sense that they partly create their own habitat
  - found across the world, from the tropics to the arctic
  - important indicators of the health of the marine environment
  - important, but are limited to shoals and shallow lagoons
  - one of the most valuable and important habitats of the Indian River Lagoon
  - the most common vegetation in shallow waters
  - vulnerable to physical disturbances, such as wind-driven waves and storms
* belong to a group of plants called monocotyledons that include grasses, lilies and palms.
* can form dense underwater meadows, some of which are large enough to be seen from space.
* continue to decline at an alarming rate throughout the planet's temperate regions.
* dies off without the presence of sunlight.
* do more than provide food and shelter for aquatic life.
* fill many roles and provide many benefits in the marine environment.
* form the dominant biological community within Florida Bay.
* generally require high light levels to grow and survive.
* grow below the low tide level in the sheltered shallow waters of estuaries
  - from a dense mat of rhizomes and roots
  - in beds throughout the bay wherever conditions are favorable
* have extensive underground roots and rhizomes which anchor the plant in the muddy sands
  - land based ancestors, and only returned to the sea in recent evolutionary history
  - roots and grow on sand and mud
  - roots, stems and leaves, and produce flowers and seeds
* is seaweed
* offers a place of refuge for small creatures hiding from hungry predators
  - refuge for crabs by reducing a predator s search and capture efficiency
* plays a critical role in the health of the ecosystem.
* produce flowers, fruit and seeds - algae produce spores
  - seeds, although their flowers are often inconspicuous
* provide a primary productive food source for estuarine systems
  - oxygen, nutrients, anchorage, food, habitat, cover, and places for attachment
* provides a refuge from predation.
* require ample amounts of sunlight
  - sunlight, water, nutrients, and a soft muddy substrate
* stabilize coastal sediments and shorelines.
* tend to develop extensive underwater meadows that resemble fields of wheat.

Spirogyra
* Most spirogyras produce oxygen
  - undergo mitosis
* Some spirogyras live in environments
  - watery environments
* are filamentous green algae, named for their spiraling chloroplasts.
* includes cell membranes
  - cells
  - corpi
  - cytoplasm
  - nuclei
  - plasma membranes
  - sections
  - vacuoles