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Ocean Portal by The Smithsonian Institution

Plants & Algae

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PHOTO Lonely Seagrass in Acidic Waters Closest to the seeps, where the pH is lowest and the water is most acidic, corals no longer grow. Instead there are sand, rubble and seagrasses that are able to survive. Read more about how...MORE PHOTOS


	VIDEO MORE VIDEOS Sea Lion Sickness Both humans and sea lions get sick from eating fish and shellfish that have been...
	PHOTO MORE PHOTOS CO2 Marsh Study How do plants respond to rising CO2 levels? To find out, plant physiologist Bert...
	PHOTO MORE PHOTOS Kelp off the California Coast Giant kelp (Macrocystis pyrifera) is large, brown algae that grows in dense fore...

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					Dancing Bulb May 7, 2013 - 9:45AMThis beautiful bromeliad, also called an air plant because it gets its nutrients and water from the air, is a flowering plant in the pineapple family. All of them are epiphytes, meaning they get their support from and grow on...

Killer Algae (Caulerpa taxifolia)

Feb 20, 2013 - 10:16AM

A strain of this green seaweed, native to the Indian and Pacific Oceans,...

Floating Sargassum Seaweed

Feb 5, 2013 - 11:08AM

Sargassum fluitans, a.k.a. “Gulfweed,” forms dense clumps up to the size of...

SPOTLIGHT


Scientists Work to Predict and Prevent Algae Blooms Algae, like all organisms, normally grow in balance with their ecosystems, limited by the amount of nutrients in the water....

How Coastal Seagrass Feeds the Deep Feb 11 2013 - 1:53pm It is a well-known fact that for animals living in the deep sea, food can be scarce. The food that is around usually rains down from above as dead animals and organic particles from plankton living near the ocean’s surface. Occasionally, a bonus in the form of a good-sized dead fish, a porpoise, or...	Sea Grapes: A Google Earth Tour Dec 16 2011 - 11:16am “Sea grapes” may sound like something Poseidon would snack on, and not a killer algae. Yet Caulerpa racemosa var. cylindracea poses a serious threat to marine life. Spread by the bilge water of boats, this fast-growing alga is quick to take root, squeezing out native species.
Bubble Algae (Ventricaria ventricosa) Jul 26 2011 - 11:45am Macroscopic algae (Ventricaria ventricosa), also known as "bubble algae" or "sea pearl," is widespread algal species that can withstand low light. Each of the bubbles is a single cell, making it one of the largest single-celled organisms known, reaching up to 5 centimeters in diameter. They are...	Will Coral Reefs Survive Acidification? Aug 2 2012 - 3:34pm Nestled among the beautiful coral reefs of Papua New Guinea (PNG) is a place that could provide the key to our understanding of one of the biggest threats to coral reef survival: Ocean Acidification. Here cool carbon dioxide naturally bubbles out of volcanic cracks in the shallow sea floor and...
A World Adrift: Life in the Sargassum May 18 2012 - 4:43pm Smithsonian Marine Science Network Postdoctoral Fellow, Seabird McKeon, returns from the Smithsonian field site in Belize. Together with Dan Barshis of Stanford University, Seabird reports on the seemingly invisible inhabitants of drifting sargassum seaweeds. As with many parts of the ocean, a ball...	Floating Sargassum Seaweed Feb 5 2013 - 11:08am Sargassum fluitans, a.k.a. “Gulfweed,” forms dense clumps up to the size of a beach ball that slowly rotate as they drift. The fronds are quite dense, but if you look carefully, sometimes you can see hints of the rich community that hides in the floating sargassum.
Macroscopic Algae (Acetabularia crenulata) Jan 26 2010 - 11:45am Macroscopic Algae (Acetabularia crenulata). More about mangrove ecosystems can be found in the Mangroves section.