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My Search to Identify Padina Algae Essay

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Using the ReefWatcher's field guide to native and alien Hawaiian algae published on the UH website, I identified the algae as of the genus Padina, however I am not quite sure which species it is. The most common species of Padina in Hawaii are the P. australis and P. japonica, and is sometimes referred to as "peacock's tail" because of its fan-like shape. Padina is a member of the class phaeophyceae, which is a class of brown algae. The peacock's tail alga is not harmful when eaten, however it can be dangerous when walking across rock, as the algae can get quite slippery.
This alga has no predators that we know of for sure right now, but most likely this alga is a part of herbivorous marine animals', like sea urchins, sea turtles, and …show more content…

Another member of the padina family, the P. pavonica, has an interesting way of reproducing, and I assume that most of the padina also propagate the same way. The P. pavonica can reproduce two ways: one way to do so is by producing diploid spores that develop into new algae. Another way to do so is by way of sexual reproducing – producing haploid gametes. This method, however, is quite rare and the algae usually reproduce by way of diploid spores. Some time after the new alga begins to form, it attaches to the rock, shell, or bed. Although it may seem as if the algae are all connected together, in reality, they are all individual algae tightly packed together. Algae will become an increasingly important part of our ecosystem as we continue to release more and more carbon dioxide into the air, without doing much about it. Many know that animals breath in oxygen and exhale carbon dioxide (and other impurities), while plants need carbon dioxide to survive and breathe out other molecules like oxygen. One way we can minimize the harmful effects of our carbon dioxide emissions on the environment is to plant more plants. Algae are a good choice to aid in reducing these consequences, because they are rather small, but still take CO2 out of the air. I was interested in why some algae did not grow on the rocks where the waves were breaking. It seemed like that would be an

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