Algae: The Worlds Most Important Plants

Russell L. Chapman, Executive Director

Center for Marine Biodiversity & Conservation
Scripps Institution of Oceanography
University of California San Diego
Osher Lecture #1 - 22 January 2009
(Your life depends on them.)
The Plan (if all goes well)

Algae and attitude







The Plan (if all goes well)

Algae and attitude
Why algae are the most important plants






The Plan (if all goes well)

Algae and attitude
Why algae are the most important plants
General introduction to what the algae are





The Plan (if all goes well)

Algae and attitude
Why algae are the most important plants
General introduction to what the algae are
Comments on some of the big ones




The Plan (if all goes well)

Algae and attitude
Why algae are the most important plants
General introduction to what the algae are
Comments on some of the big ones
Comments on some of the small ones



The Plan (if all goes well)

Algae and attitude
Why algae are the most important plants
General introduction to what the algae are
Comments on some of the big ones
Comments on some of the small ones
More reasons algae are more important than
you may have thought

The Plan (if all goes well)

Algae and attitude
Why algae are the most important plants
General introduction to what the algae are
Comments on some of the big ones
Comments on some of the small ones
More reasons algae are more important than
you may have thought
Last slide (finally!)
Algae and Attitude
The Algae - SeaWEEDS
The Algae - PondSCUM
The Algae - Frog SPITtle
Algae and Attitude
Sheila Henry
Algae? You are going to
talk about algae?
Who wants to
hear about algae?
Lots of people!!!
Even Osher Lifelong
Learning Institute Students!!!
LSU BIOL 4052 - Phycology
at LUMCON
(Louisiana Universities Marine Consortium)
Phycology Students
Good Attitude!
Phycology: phykos & logos
all Greek, all good
Algology: alga & logos
half Latin, half Greek, all bad
one alga
two or more algae
The importance of algae -

the big picture
Earth - the blue planet
Earth - the blue planet
Lots of water
Earth - the blue planet
Lots of water
Lots of algae
Earth - the blue planet
Lots of water
Lots of algae
Lots of oxygen
The Algae & The Air (Oxygen)
You Breathe
blue-green algae (cyanobacteria) 3.5 BYA
oxygen levels rise 2.2 BYA
The Land
(pre-algae)
The Land
(post-algae)
A big lake!
Thats one small step for an alga,
One giant step for a plant kingdom.
Jim Graham
A big lake!
475 MYA*
* 700 MYA Heckman, D. S., et al. 2001. Science: 293:1129-1133
CHLOROPHYTA
STREPTOPHYTA

Chlorophyceae
Land Plants
Trebouxiophyceae
(Pleurastrophyceae)
Ulvophyceae
Prasinophyceae
VIRIDIPLANTAE
Mesostigma
Charophyceae
freshwater algae
Mesostigma
freshwater flagellate
!
Mesostigma
freshwater flagellate
Why freshwater green algae
and not marine green algae?
Algae the Plants & Animals
You Know & Love

(& Love to Eat)
&
all seafood
too!!!
Red algae
Green algae
Brown algae
Yellow-green algae
Blue-green algae* (*Cyanobacteria)
Golden algae
Photoautotrophs (and their colorless kin)
Morphologically simple
With relatively simple reproductive systems
Colorful!
The algae - some major groups
Rhodophyta (reds)
Chlorophyta (greens)
Phaeophyta (browns)
Xanthophyta (yellow greens)
Cyanophyta (blue-greens)
Chrysophyta (golden)
Euglenophyta (euglenoids)
Pyrrhophyta (dinoflagellates)
etc.
Sandie Baldauf (University of York) 2006
Cyanobacteria - the Blue-green Algae
*
= the seaweeds
*
*
*
Polyphyletic
The Algae
Oceans, lakes, rivers, streams, in ice & snow, in the air,
in the ground, in rocks, on turtles,
on mosquito larvae antennae, in hot springs, on ducks feet,
in protozoans, and in humans!
on sulfur belly whale bellies, on polar bears and tropical sloths,
The algae are everywhere (more or less).
Sandie Baldauf (University of York) 2006
*
= the seaweeds
*
plants
The Seaweeds - big algae #1

The Green Algae - Chlorophyta
characteristics
Acetabularia Valonia Caulerpa
plants
ca. 8,000 spp.
90% freshwater
tiny unicells to large
The Seaweeds - big algae #1

The Green Algae - Chlorophyta
characteristics
mermaids cup Acetabularia
cell biology reseach
weeds: Codium & Caulerpa
Acetabularia Valonia Caulerpa
Caulerpa

(scourge of the Mediterranean)
1984
Caulerpa taxifolia (Vahl) C. Agardh (native to Caribbean Sea; Indian Ocean)
California News!
Carlsbads Agua Hedionda Lagoon declared
Caulerpa taxifolia free!!!

S.D. Union-Tribune 12 July 2006
cost: $7 million
Are the algae bad?
No! People - bad!
Algae - good!
Trentepohlia chapmanii Rindi et Lpez-Bautista, sp. nov.
Some green algae are orange and grow
on plants, e.g., this Trentepohlia growing
on bamboo in French Guiana.
Sandie Baldauf (University of York) 2006
*
= the seaweeds
*
plants
The Red Algae - The Rhodophyta

Algae in search of a life cycle!!
The Seaweeds - the big algae #2
The Red Algae - Rhodophyta
characteristics
plants
ca. 6,000-8,000 spp.
90% marine
some calcified (coralline red algae)
agar and carrageenans (polysaccharides)
The Seaweeds - the big algae #2
The Red Algae - Rhodophyta
characteristics
Porphyra (laver) sushi

pharmaceuticals
Porphyridium: research & viruses
Sandie Baldauf (University of York) 2006
*
= the seaweeds
*
The Seaweeds - the big algae #3

The Brown Algae - Phaeophyta
characteristics
not plants but very plant-like!
ca. 2,200 spp.
almost entirely marine
a few small ones, but most large, very large,
or huge
alginic acid
The Seaweeds - the big algae #3

The Brown Algae - Phaeophyta
characteristics
Fucus - common rockweed
Sargassum (Sargasso Sea)
the Kelps (Macrocystis pyrifera)
ecology & industry (alginic acid)
Fucus
Postelsia palmaeformis
Macrocystis
Sargassum
The Small Algae
The Blue-green Algae - Cyanobacteria
characteristics
heterocyst
stromatolites
3.5 BYA
Phytoplankton - Pasturage of the Seas
2. Diatoms
1. Dinoflagellates
3. Coccolithophorids
(haptophytes)
coccoliths
The Small Algae
Sandie Baldauf (University of York) 2006
*
*
*
The Phytoplankton - Pasturage of the Seas
1. Dinoflagellates - Pyrrhophyta
red tides (HABs)
Ceratium
The Small Algae
Noctiluca bloom
Are the algae bad?
No! People - bad!
Algae - good!
Dinoflagellates - algal bioluminescence
The Phytoplankton - Pasturage of the Sea

1. Dinoflagellates - Pyrrhophyta
red tides (HABs)
2. Diatoms - Bacillariophyta
glass houses!

The Small Algae
epitheca
hypotheca
girdle
bands
Valve View
Girdle View
http://www.diatoms.co.uk/
http://www.diatoms.co.uk/
http://www.diatoms.co.uk/
choir boys
http://www.diatoms.co.uk/
GEMs/MURI Home
Genetically Engineered Micro/nanodevices (GEMs)
Mark Hildebrand, Ph.D.
Professor
Scripps Institution of Oceanography
University of California, San Diego

http://www.gemsmuri.gatech.edu/Institutions/UCSD/Hildebrand/hildebrand.html
Brian Palenik
Marine Biology Research Division
Scripps Institution of Oceanography
University of California, San Diego

Our lab uses molecular and biochemical approaches to
characterize the response of photosynthetic microorganisms
such as diatoms and cyanobacteria to changes in their
environment, such as how they respond to toxic copper
levels or how they respond to nutrient depletion
http://mbrd.ucsd.edu/palenik/index.cfm
The Phytoplankton - Pasturage of the Seas
1. Dinoflagellates - Pyrrhophyta
red tides (HABs)
2. Diatoms - Bacillariophyta
glass houses
3. Coccolithophorids (Haptophytes)


Pseudopedinella
The Small Algae
Coccolithophorids
Scanning electron microscope images
of tiny coccoliths
The white cliffs of Dover!
The Phytoplankton - Pasturage of the Sea
1. Dinoflagellates - Pyrrhophyta
red tides (HABs)
2. Diatoms - Bacillariophyta
glass houses
3. Coccolithophorids (Haptophytes)
the white cliffs of Dover
4. Picoplankton (e.g. Chrysophytes)
0.2-2.0 m in diameter (bacteria and
very small eukaryotes)
The Small Algae
Abundant microalgae in the
oceans for billions of years

What do you get?
~4241 platforms!
Abundant microalgae in the
oceans for billions of years
accumulated organic matter,
gas and oil deposits
(Cretaceous Age ~80-90 MYA)
human progress !
?
Spanish firm claims it can make oil
from plankton


Posted by: justin on Sunday, July 23, 2006 - 07:31 AM
Thu Jul 20, 11:46 AM ET
Yahoo News

MADRID (Reuters) - A Spanish company claimed on Thursday
to have developed a method of breeding plankton and turning
the marine plants into oil, providing a potentially inexhaustible
source of clean fuel.

aerial view of General Atomics
San Diego facility
Twelve strains of Salinospora, a new
natural marine microbe discovered by
the Center for Marine Biotechnology
and Biomedicine, Scripps Institution
of Oceanography.
William H. Fenical
CMBB
Center for Marine Biotechnology & Biomedicine
William H. Gerwick
Pharmaceutical Treasures from
Marine Pond Scum?

Discovery of New Drugs from the Sea
Blue-green algae are among the most ancient of all life forms on the
planet, and have evolved a remarkable ability to produce biologically
active chemicals that increase their competitiveness. Algae appear as
shapeless creatures floating on the waters surface, but are intricately
beautiful organisms at microscopic levels. Promising discoveries
in the areas of anticancer drugs will be
discussed, from collection and cultivation
of algae, to drug screening with the
pharmaceutical industry.
Spirulina
Medicines!
Oxygen!
Sea Food!
Land Food!
new Gas & Oil?
old Gas & Oil!
The Last Slide -
The End!!
Algae: the worlds most
important plants