3. General Characteristics
Plant body may be unicellular, colonial or filamentous,
or multicellular
They are usually green due to the dominance of
chlorophyll A and B.
The chloroplast may be discoid, cup-shaped, spiral or
ribbon shaped in different species.
Makes up the composition of many seaweeds.
4. Most of the members have one or more storage
bodies called pyrenoids that are localised around the
chloroplast and is composed of starch.
Cell wall is made of cellulose
Asexual reproduction is by zoospores. They are
flagellates produced from the parent cells by mitosis.
Sexual is by isogamus, anisogamus or oogamus.
5. ™Ecological Uses™
Acts as the producer in underwater and certain remote
island ecosystems
Most congregations of seaweed also serve as a habitat
for various animals especially those with adaptations
like mimicry and camouflage.
6. Commercial Uses
Seaweed is a popular ingredient eastern cuisine and as
fodder for livestock.
Seaweed is capable of releasing its stored nutrients
into the soil as fertilizer
Certain species contain antioxidant properties and are
used to create medicine for skin treatment and other
cosmetics
8. General Characteristics
Also known as cryptomonads or cryptomonas.
They are found equally in marine and fresh water
sometimes in brackish water.
They appear either blue- green or red depending upon
which phycobiliprotein their thylakoid contains;
phycocyanin (blue green) or phycoerythrin (red).
Most species are highly toxic.
9. General Characteristics
(cont.)
Single cells characterized by an asymmetric cell shape
and two flagella.
There are usually one or two plastids.
They have a highly reduced second nucleus, or
nucleomorph, in the periplastidal space between the
two outer and the two inner plastid membranes.
Presence of pyrenoids composed of starch as reserve
food materials.
The cell contains the pigments chlorophyll
A, chlorophyll C and phycobiliprotein are located
within the lumen of thylakoids.
10. Commercial
Uses
In Lake Mälaren, just
west of Stockholm,
Sweden, members
cryptomonads are
being used to treat
wastewater and they
exhibit a high
tolerance for
ammonium and thus
is capable of storing
large amounts of
nitrogen from the
biogas produced
from decaying
organic matter that
falls into the lake.
11. Commercial
Uses (cont.)
The same algae in Lake
Mälaren is then
cultivated and harvested
to be processed into
biomass rich in nitrogen.
13. General Characteristics
Commonly known as giant kelp.
There are about 265 genera, and 1500-2000 species
Mostly marine, with unicellular or multicellular body.
Generally found in a costal, temperate, marine
environment. It lives well in environments where the
water is less than 72 degrees F and the water is less than
40m.
Cells are eukaryotic, with special type of excretory
granules in vesicles.
Chief pigments are chlorophyll a and c, beta carotene,
lutein, fucoxanthin, dioanthin and violaxanthin.
14. General Characteristics
(cont.)
Reserve food includes laminarin, mannitol and oils.
Sexual reproduction is isogamous, anisogamous or
oogamous.
Zoospore formation is common.
Male gametes are flagellate.
Flagella are heterokont.
Life cycle is haplobiotic or diplobiotic, with alternation
of generations.
15. Commercial
Uses
It is used for vitamins, acetone, iodine, paints, toothpaste, dental
impression compound, ice cream, canned food, cosmetics,
shampoo, and many processed foods.
Is a source of food for both humans and animals alike (marine and
terrestrial).
16. Ecological
Uses
Ecologically, acts as a producer in
marine ecosystems and most
underwater ecosystems.
Serves as a viable habitat for
numerous species of marine
invertebrates and fish.
18. General Characteristics
Commonly known as red algae.
One of the oldest groups of eukaryotic algae.
Contains over 7,000 currently recognized species
with taxonomic revisions ongoing.
Fresh water and marine, with multicellular and
filmentous to parenchymatous body.
Generally found in marine environments ranging
from deep depths to sandy shores. Only about
5% of them are freshwater species.
Cells are eukaryotic.
19. General Characteristics
(cont.)
Main pigments are chlorophyll a and d, beta carotene,
lutein, fucoxanthin, myxoxanthin and
violaxanthin.
Reserve food includes floridean starch and polymers of
galactansulphate
Sexual reproduction is absent. and advanced type of
oogamy.
Zoospore formation is absent.
20. Commercial
Uses
Used for medicinal purposes due to their high content in fiber,
proteins, and other essential nutrients.
Part of the human diet especially in the Asian regions. Fed on by
marine and terrestrial animals as well.
Can serve as crop fertilizer.
21. Ecological
Uses
Is a primary producer in most marine and freshwater ecosystems.
Acts as a habitat for aquatic organisms.
23. General Characteristics
• Mostly fresh water with unicellular to siphonous
body.
• Cells are eukaryotic with silica and pectin in the
cell wall
• Chief pigments includes chlorophyll a and e, beta
carotene, neoxanthin and violaxanthin.
• Sexual reproduction is isogamous, anisogamous
or oogamous
• Zoosphore formation is common
• Male gametes are flagellate
• Flagella are heterokront (unequal)
• Life cycle is mostly haplontic
26. General Characteristics
• Dinozoa or Pyrrophytes
• 90% are marine plankton
• ½ photosynthetic
• Unicellular or in aggregations
• Symbiotic partners to sponges, corals, jellyfish
and flatworms
• Primarily asexual, and reproduced by mitosis,
only a few species have been found to
reproduce sexually
27. General Characteristics
(cont.)• Cell covering called
Amphiesma that often forms
plates
• Made up mainly of cellulose
• Grouped into two:
• Armored/ thecate
• Unarmored/ athecate
• Biflagellate
• Longitudinal and transverse
flagellum
• Severe thecal plates
28. General Characteristics
(cont.)• Some species of dinoflagellates (Gonyaulax,
Pyrodinium, Pyrocystis, Noctiluca) are
luminescent
• They emit flashes of light in response to
mechanical disturbance of the water. The light
is produced by an enzymatic reaction
29. Uses/Significa
nce
• Dinoflagellates are perhaps best known as cause of harmful algal
blooms
• About 75-80% of toxic phytoplankton species are
dinoflagellates and they cause “red tides” that often kill fish
and/or shellfish either directly, because of toxin production, or
because of effects caused by large numbers of cells that clog
animal gills, deplete oxygen, etc.
• Dinoflagellate toxins are among the most potent biotoxins
known.
• They are second only to diatoms as marine primary producers
• As phagotrophic organisms they are also important components
of the microbial loop in the oceans and help channel significant
amounts of energy into planktonic food webs
31. General Characteristics
a type of mainly aquatic, photosynthetic algae
they can live as unicellular organisms, colonial, or
filamentous
they have a solid shells made of silica
they are found in marine and freshwater ecosystems
as well as brackish water
they can also be found in terrestrial environments in
the soil where moisture is at least periodic
in water, diatoms live attached to rocks, plants, or be
free floating but they are best known for being part
of the drifting planktonic mass
32. General Characteristics
(cont.) they contain chloroplasts that have been found to
have numerous photosynthetic pigments giving the
chloroplasts a typically golden brown color
photosynthetic pigments include chlorophylls a and c
(green), as well as B-carotene (yellow), fucoxanthin
(brown), and small amounts of diatoxanthin,
diadinoxanthin, and other carotenoids
Reproduction of diatoms can be either sexual or
asexual (cellular division)
All diatom skeletons are made of silica and consist of
two parts or frustules that fit inside each other like a
petri dish: the epitheca and the hypotheca
33. General Characteristics
(cont.) The shape of the frustule is the defining feature that
is used to break the diatoms into two distinct classes:
the centric or Centrobacillariophyceae and the
pennate or Pennatibacillariophyceae
34. Uses/Significa
nce
Diatoms are estimated to be responsible for 20% to
25% of all the organic carbon fixation, are major
sources of atmospheric oxygen, and are a major food
source for aquatic microorganisms and insect larva
Been called "grass of the sea" because they are major
contributors to primary productivity in the oceans
and create a beginning to the food chain
they can be used for present water quality but also
used to determine former water quality and trends
over the years
35. Uses/Significa
nce
Billions of years of diatom frustules being naturally fossilized has
created huge deposits of these shells or diatomaceous earth
these deposits are mined to be used as filtering aids, abrasives,
cleansers, and paints; other deposits hold pockets of oil
37. General Characteristics
unicellular flagellate inhabiting widely in
freshwater and marine
the cells are naked with numerous
chloroplasts, and two subequal
heterodynamic flagella emerge from the
anterior part of the cell
the anterior flagellum is directed forward, has
a tubular mastigoneme, and is responsible for
the movement of the cell, whereas the trailing
flagellum is smooth
38.
39. General Characteristics
(cont.) the freshwater species contain diadinoxanthin,
heteroxanthin, and vaucheriaxanthin, and the
majority of marine species contain
fucoxanthin and violaxanthin, with light-green
and yellowish-brown chloroplast colors,
respectively
this algae usually possess ejectile organelles
(e.g. mucocysts, "trichocysts")
most species are planktonic
42. General Characteristics
• A single-celled freshwater organism, which is
characterized by the presence of a chlorophyll, a
reddish eyespot , a single long anterior flagellum
and a second rudimentary flagellum
• Euglena are usually found to live in fresh water,
streams, and in some fresh water ponds.
• They are usually found in places where there is a
high level of chlorophyll.
• Euglena have adapted to become mixotrophs ,
this means that they are both heterotrophic and
autotrophic.
43. General Characteristics
(cont.) They are able to get food two different ways, by
eating other organisms and making their own
nutrients.
The Euglena is a oval like shaped protist that consists
of many organelles.
44. Uses/Significa
nce
• The main function of this protist is to be a part
of the food chain in aquatic environments.
• Euglena is a very effective organism when it
comes to reducing carbon dioxide levels and it
does so more effectively than many plants.
• Another benefit of Euglena is that it can tell us
if the water is polluted. It does this because it
thrives where green algae is prominent. Green
algae is present when there is a lot of nitrogen
in the water which comes from waste.
46. General Characteristics
Small flagellates that are a yellowish brown color.
They have two flagella that are a different size and
shape that originate in the anterior side.
The larger one has two rows of stiff mastigonemes and
the shorter only has a few hairy extensions.
Chrysophyceae is found as a unicellular organism and
as a multicellular organism though the unicellular is
more common.
It can also be found singly or in a colony. Like diatoms
it can form silica, but it is stored in a cyst within the
cell instead of the cell wall.
47. General Characteristics
(cont.) There are several different kinds of cells walls within
Chrysophyceae. They vary from the Ochromonas that
is capable of amoeboid movement, the cells may be
naked and imbeded in mucilage, such
as Chrysosaccus, or coccoid and surrounded by a cell
wall, as in Chrysosphaera. They can even filamentous
like Phaeoplaca.
Chrysophyceae are somewhat photosythetic, but it
can also digest it's own food. The pigmentation is
cause by fucoxanthin and the chlorophylls. This is in
the certain kinds that are amoeboid in nature. There
is a certain species of Chrysophyceae in the polar
water that is one of the most photosynthetic
eukaryotes in the cold ocean regions.
48. General Characteristics
(cont.) Chyrsophyceae is both sexual and asexual. Sexually it
reproduces through zygotic meiosis, which may be
isogamous, oogametic or anisogmaous. The zygote
produces forms a silica cyst before it develops. When
it reproduces asexually, which is the most common
form of reproduction, it goes through binary fission
and creates a cyst or statospore.
49. Uses/Significa
nce
Chryosphyceae are generally a freshwater
protists, but can also be found in moist soil and
mosses. They are generally found in colder
waters, but will grow well at higher
temperatures. They also prefer the water to have
a slightly acidic pH. Some are found in the
ocean and are significant members of the
nanoplankton. They can survive inactive periods
by creating a endocysts that has a single cell.
They can also switch to heterotrophic mode
from autotrophic mode if there is a food
scarcity. To do this they will develope
pseudopods to catch small protists.
51. General Characteristics
Myxophyceae also known as cyanophyceae; the algae
of this family commonly known as blue green algae.
The cell wall is made up cellulose and pectic
compound surrounded by gelatinous sheath.
The blue green colour is due to the presence of blue
green pigment called phycocyanin.
Other pigments are phycoerythrin, chlorophyll a,
chlorophyll b, xanthophyll and carotenoids.
Reserve food materials are oil drops and proteineous
body called cyanophycean granules.
52. General Characteristics
(cont.) Presence of incipient nucleus present at the central region.
Some of the members show a phenomenon called
as complementary chromatic adaptation or Gaidukov
phenomenon.
Vegetative reproduction occurs by cell
division and hormogonium formation.
Sexual reproduction is completely absent.
Some of the members grow in symbiotic association.
54. Uses/Significa
nce
Important providers of nitrogen fertilizer in
the cultivation of rice and beans.
Contribution of the cyanobacteria is the origin
of plants. The chloroplast with which plants
make food for themselves is actually a
cyanobacterium living within the plant's cells.
Inhibits cancer cell growth
