"Seaweed" is the common name for countless species of marine

plants and algae that grow in the ocean as well as in rivers, lakes, and
other water bodies.
Some seaweeds are microscopic, such as the phytoplankton that live
suspended in the water column and provide the base for most marine food
chains. Some are enormous, like the giant kelp that grow in abundant
forests and tower like underwater redwoods from their roots at the bottom
of the sea. Most are medium-sized, come in colors of red, green, brown,
and black, and randomly wash up on beaches and shorelines just about
everywhere.
Marine macroalgae, or seaweeds, are plant-like organisms that
generally live attached to rock or other hard substrata in coastal areas.
They belong to three different groups, empirically distinguished since the
mid-nineteenth century on the basis of thallus color: brown algae (phylum
Ochrophyta, class Phaeophyceae; see right for a large brown
kelp, Durvillaea in New Zealand), red algae (phylum Rhodophyta;
below Gelidium in Ireland), andgreen algae (phylum Chlorophyta, classes
Bryopsidophyceae,Chlorophyceae,Dasycladophyceae, Prasinophyceae,
and Ulvophyceae; bottom, Ulvahowensis in Lord Howe Island, off eastern
Australia). Distinguishing these three phyla, however, involves more
substantial differences than colour. In addition to the pigmentation, they
differ considerably in many ultrastructural and biochemical features
including photosynthetic pigments, storage compounds, composition of cell
walls, presence/absence of flagella, ultrastructure of mitosis, connections
between adjacent cells, and the fine structure of the chloroplasts. They
originated through different evolutionary processes
primaryendosymbiosis for green and red algae,
secondary endosymbiosis for brown algae, and for this reason they are
now classified in different kingdoms (green algae and red algae in the
KingdomPlantae, and brown algae in the Kingdom Chromista).








Red and brown algae are almost exclusively marine, whilst green
algae are also common in freshwater (rivers and lakes), and even in
terrestrial (rocks, walls, houses, and tree bark in damp places) situations.
Many of these algae are very ancient organisms, and although lumped
together as "algae", are not really very closely related, having
representatives in 4 of the 5 or 6 kingdoms of organisms.










Seaweeds are far more complex organisms than generally realised.
Many have specialised tissues and growth forms. They may have very
complicated sex, with many of them producing sex pheremones (chemicals
that attract males or male gametes), and with many different types of sex
organs. Red algae have the most complicated sex known in plants. Kelps
are known to have quite rapid translocation, something that is not credited
to algae in many textbooks. There is even growing evidence of root-like
structures in some wracks that reach deep into rocks, and which may be
important in the "weathering" of rocks in the intertidal.












Generally, seaweeds and many algae have holdfasts: basal
structures that do exactly what the name suggests - hold fast to the rock.
Seaweeds must produce some amazing adhesives as quite small holdfasts
seem to be sufficient for quite large plants. On the right you can see the
small holdfast (about 1 cm across) of an Ascophyllum nodosum (Egg
Wrack) clump about 2 m in length.
AlgaeBase dynamic species counts shows that there are about 10,000
species of seaweeds, of which 6,500 are red algae (Rhodophyta), 2,000
arebrowns and 1,500 are greens (about 800 species of Bryopsidophyceae,
50 species of Dasycladophyceae, 400Siphoncladophyceae, and 250
marineUlvophycea.





















Starfish (sea stars) are beautiful animals that can be a variety of colors,
shapes and sizes, although all resemble a star. While some appear smooth,
they all have spines covering their upper surface and a soft underside. If you
gently turn over a live sea star, you'll see its tube feet wiggling back at you.
These iconic marine animals are fascinating creatures.
Sea stars are not fish.
The word starfish refers to about 1,800 species of marine animals that are
star-shaped. The common term starfish is confusing, though. Starfish
aren'tfish - finned, tailed animals with backbones - they are echinoderms, which
are marine invertebrates. So scientists prefer to call these animals sea stars.
Sea stars come in all sizes, shapes and colors. Their most noticeable
characteristic is their arms, which form their distinctive star shape. Many sea
star species have 5 arms, and these species most resemble a traditional star
shape. Some species, like the sun star, can have up to 40 arms radiating out
from their central disk (the usually circular area at the center of the sea
star's arms).
All sea stars are in the Class Asteroidea. Asteroidea have a water vascular
system, rather than blood. A sea star draws seawater into its body via
amadreporite (a porous plate, or sieve plate), and moves it through a series of
canals. The water provides structure to the sea star's body, and is used for
propulsion by moving the animal's tube feet.
Although sea stars don't have gills, tails or scales like fish do, they
have eyes - one at the end of each of their arms. These are not complex
eyes, but eye spots that can sense light and dark.
Sea stars may reproduce sexually, by releasing sperm and eggs (gametes)
into the water, or asexually, through regeneration.
Although sea stars live underwater and are commonly called "starfish," they are not fish. They do
not have gills, scales, or fins like fish do and they move quite differently from fish. While fish
propel themselves with their tails, sea stars have tiny tube feet to help them move along.
How do starfish moves? Each sea star has hundreds of tiny feet on the bottom of each
ray. These are tube feet, or podia. These tiny feet can be filled with sea water. The
vascular system of the sea star is also filled with sea water. By moving water from the
vascular system into the tiny feet, the sea star can make a foot move by expanding it.
This is how sea stars move around.

Muscles within the feet are used to retract them. Each ray of a sea star has a light
sensitive organ called an eyespot. Though it cannot see nearly as well as we do, sea
stars can detect light and its general direction. They have some idea of where they are
going.