If you do it right, algae are perfect for your garden because they can take up as little as 1,000 liters of rainwater every year to make it easier to plant and can also produce more algae to feed to bigger plants. A typical lawn can produce more than 200,000 liters of water in 10 years. This makes algae a powerful tool for creating a healthy and lush lawn.
The algae at the beginning of the food chain in figure 3-1 are living and growing creatures that are found in marine waters and are one of the largest producers of oxygen on this planet. These oxygen-producing organisms are called algae. Because they are oxygen-producing, they require an environment where they are exposed to oxygen. When they are exposed to oxygen in the water, they produce oxygen bubbles. The oxygen bubbles become larger as they grow, and the food chain begins.
This is the beginning of the food chain. Figure 3-1: The algae at the beginning of the food chain. Image source: NASA.
This image is a representation of the algae in the food chain. Some of the algae are more advanced and are on the left. The algae that are on the right are less advanced and are at the very beginning of the food chain.
Are you a fish that likes to drink water? You are not alone. Many of us have a love for water and have even tried to drink it. If you don’t want to drink from a bottle, you can drink from a tap. But there is a problem when water that is fresh is too cold. Your body becomes so thirsty that it starts to use up water. Not anymore.
the algae at the beginning of the food chain in figure 3-1 are introduced in this book and you will learn details about their nutrient intake and their growth.
The algae at the beginning of the food chain in figure 3-1 are called algae (or bryophytes, as they are often called by scientists) because they are most commonly found in fresh water. They are also called green microalgae because they have a blue-green color. They are a tiny eukaryotic organism that can grow in extreme environments, such as in the deep ocean.
The food chain begins with algae at the beginning of the food chain, where plants and animals feed on the sun’s light and then die off. This was first described by Darwin in his Origin of Species in 1859. In fact, this idea is the most famous in all of biology. The food chain in figure 3-1 is also called the evolutionary food chain, because it describes how life evolves.
A long time ago, the first algae cells were found in the ocean of the Red Sea. These algae, in which they called dinoflagellates, were responsible for the formation of the food chain at the start of life, by adding nitrogen to the water to turn plants into a feeder for all other animals, like us.