Phycology, generally referred as algology, is the study of algae, a diverse group of mostly aquatic plants that range in size from microscopic forms to shrubs or trees. The word phycology comes from the Greek word phykos, which literally means “seaweed.” They are the major producers in the food chain …
Read More »Introduction to Marine Botany: Phytoplankton
The word ‘plankton’ has been derived from a Gr. word ‘planktos’ means drifting. So, plankton are those microscopic aquatic organisms or drifters whose movement is mainly driven by water current, wave, tide, etc. Although, some of them might possess some kinds of locomotory organs but those are not sufficiently strong …
Read More »Marine Botany: Oceans, Seas & Bay of Bengal
Marine Botany is the study of aquatic plants and algae that live in oceans, seas, intertidal zones and even in brackish water (more saline than freshwater but less saline than true marine environments) of estuarine zones. It is a combined branch of marine biology and botany. According to Wikipedia, Marine …
Read More »Seaweed Cultivation & Algal Industry
Of the global seaweed harvest, 85% – 95% goes to the food industry and is worth approx €4.1 billion per annum (p.a.). The most valuable crop produced by seaweed aquaculture is Nori – Porphyra – a red seaweed or alga. The value of this crop is around US$ 2 billion …
Read More »Phases of Growth in Batch Culture
Batch culture: A close system culture of algae in which there will be no supply or withdrawal of culture medium and biomass into or out of the culture vessel. In this type of culture the amount of medium and inoculum are known and specific. a. Lag phase It is the …
Read More »Algal Culture Types & Culture Media
Culture of algae in laboratory is not only important for knowing the details of the external morphology and reproduction in a particular algae or algal group, it is equally important to know the details of algal life-histories, taxonomy, physiology, biochemistry, genetics and also its ultra-structure. Most of the development in …
Read More »Phycological Research in Bangladesh
The branch Phycology has come into existence in 1753 when Carolus Linnaeus first discovered four genera namely Fucus, Conferra, Chara and Ulva. Exactly after 200 years in 1953, Prof. A. K. M. Nurul Islam started to work on algal taxonomy in the Department of Botany, University of Dhaka and devoted …
Read More »Role of Algae in different industry
Algae is a group of photosynthetic organisms found in both marine and freshwater habitats. As these organisms have a short duplication time, they are considered among one of the fastest growing creatures. They have efficient pathways to fix atmospheric carbon dioxide and to efficiently utilize the available nutrients to convert …
Read More »Chloroplast Evolution: Endosymbiotic Theory
Algae is a heterogenous group of organisms containing members having chlorphyll ‘a’ as their primary photosynthetic pigments. These green chlorophyll molecules along with some accessory pigments are contained generally in a membrane bound packet like structure called chloroplast within the algal body. In some members, chloroplast is absent though; such …
Read More »Growth Pattern in Algae
Development of algal vegetative and reproductive part in multicellular algae by cell division resulting in complex and large structure is known as algal growth. But in case of unicellular algae simple increase in size in the body results in growth of the cell. E.g. Chlamydomonas (unicellular algae). Basically there are …
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