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Exploring the beautiful nature of California


California Nature:  Marine Plants


Unlike land plants, marine algae lack true roots, stems, leaves, and flowers.
Most possess a holdfast (a rootlike structure), a blade (leaflike structure), and many have a stipe or stemlike structure that connects the holdfast to the blade. The weight of algae is supported by water. Some marine algae also have pneumatocysts (gas-filled bladders) that float the blades close to the water's surface to maximize access to sunlight for photosynthesis.

Marine algae can range in size from microscopic phytoplankton (free-floating, single-celled algae) to 150 feet tall for giant kelp, which grows in coastal, underwater forests.

The three phyla of marine algae are mainly characterized by the dominant pigment coloring the plants, and includes brown algae, red algae, and green algae.
sea plants are an important part of the oceans ecosystem The kelp forests off the coast of Monterey Bay depict a specialized ocean ecosystem. Brown algae, kelp, makes the trees in this forest. Other organisms that live in the forest include sea cucumbers, otters, abalone, blue rock fish and sea urchins. Kelp grows fast and gets used in many products like toothpaste and pudding.

Kelp forests grow predominantly on the Pacific Coast, from Alaska and Canada to the waters of Baja California. Tiered like a terrestrial rainforest with a canopy and several layers below, the kelp forests of the eastern Pacific coast are dominated by two canopy-forming, brown macroalgae species, giant kelp (Macrocystis pyrifera) and bull kelp (Nereocystis leutkeana).

Giant kelp, perhaps the most recognized species of brown macroalgae, forms the more southern kelp forests, from the southern Channel Islands, of California to northwestern Baja. Along the central California coast where the distribution of giant kelp and bull kelp overlap, giant kelp out competes bull kelp for light.
Kelp forests grow along rocky coastlines in depths of about 6 to 90 feet. Kelp favors nutrient-rich, cool waters that range in temperature from 42 to 72 Degrees F. These brown algae communities live in clear water conditions through which light penetrates easily.

A host of invertebrates, fish, marine mammals, and birds exist in kelp forest environs. From the holdfasts to the surface mats of kelp fronds, the array of habitats on the kelp itself may support thousands of invertebrate individuals, including polychaetes, amphipods, decapods, and ophiuroids.

California sea lions, harbor seals, sea otters, and whales may feed in the kelp or escape storms or predators in the shelter of kelp. On rare occasions gray whales have been spotted seeking refuge in kelp forests from predatory killer whales. All larger marine life, including birds and mammals, may retreat to kelp during storms or high-energy regimes because the kelp helps to weaken currents and waves.
coral reefs are living plants providing food and cover for other sea life off the coast of California Coral reefs are one of the most biologically diverse habitats in the world, host to an extraordinary variety of marine plants and animals. They are also one of the world's most fragile and endangered ecosystems. The growth of mass tourism, combined with the boom in popularity of scuba diving, has brought these spectacular ecosystems to public attention across the planet.

Coral reefs provide essential fish habitat, support endangered and threatened species, and harbor protected marine mammals and turtles. They are a significant source of food, provide income and employment through tourism and marine recreation, and offer countless other benefits to humans, including supplying compounds for pharmaceuticals. Yet coral reefs around the world are rapidly being degraded by a number of human activities, such as overfishing, coastal development, and the introduction of sewage, fertilizer, and sediment.

The Cabo Pulmo National Park, home to the only coral reef in the Gulf of California, is under threat from a proposed large resort community to be built nearby.

The reef, estimated to be 20,000 years old, making it one of the oldest on the Pacific coast of the Americas, is home to 226 of the 875 fish species that inhabit that body of water, which separates the Baja California Peninsula from the Mexican mainland.

It is common to see four different species of turtles, as well as dolphins, sea lions, whale, tiger and bull sharks, in that area near the southern tip of the Baja Peninsula, which is also part of the migratory route used by humpback and blue whales.

For much of Earth’s history, California only existed as part of the seafloor in a deep blue ocean. California was slowly built by plate tectonics and now lies on the edge of a continental plate. Movement along geologic faults has sculpted spectacular landscapes that have been repeatedly shaken by earthquakes and volcanic eruptions. Over millions of years, geology and climate have shaped California’s unique habitats and produced a rich mosaic of life. Many plants and animals here are found nowhere else, making California one of the most biologically diverse places in the world.
Marine Algae      Seagrass      Coral
 
 
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