Sea Plants and Algae 4 Photosynthesis 6 What Are Plankton and Phytoplankton 10 The Marine Food Chain 12 Algae Come in Many Colors 14 Red Algae 16 Brown Algae 18 Green Algae 20 Seaweeds 22 Along the Ocean’s Shore 24 Is It Too Hot 26 A Spa from the Sea 28 Glossary 30 For More Information 31 Index 32 CONTENTS
Plants grow nearly everywhere on Earth including in the water Plants are vital to life on Earth They provide food for people and animals They also make the oxygen that other living things breathe Water plants or hydrophytes are plants that have adapted to life in the water Some water plants live totally submerged while SEA PLANTS AND ALGAE Eelgrass has adapted so that it may live most of its life completely underwater 4
others live only partly in water All water plants share many similarities so scientists believe that all water plants originally came from land Still they have adapted or changed to be able to live under water Other organisms called algae live in water too Algae are very important because they make much of Earth’s oxygen which humans and other animals need to breathe Some algae such as seaweed look like plants However algae are neither plants nor animals Instead they belong to a group of living things called protists A carpet of green algae covers the rocks of this seashore Something that is submerged is completely covered with water Vocabulary 5
