Tuesday, April 20, 2010

Seaweed Under Extreme Heat Experiment: Marine Science Conclusions

As I stated before, red seaweeds have 2 additional pigments (Phycoerythrin) and (Phycocyanin) besides the green pigment (Chlorophyl). Brown seaweeds have one additional pigment (fucoxanthan). Interestingly, the colors of both red and brown seaweeds turned green under extreme heat. Only the green seaweed, the one with the single green pigment (Chlorophyl) stayed green. Therefore, we can conclude that the other pigments cannot survive in too much heat. The distribution of red, brown, and green seaweeds seem to correspond with this data as the green seaweeds are much higher in the water column, usually from the surface to the lower intertidal zone. Because of this it is closer to the sun, which means the water of its habitat will be slightly warmer. The brown and red seaweeds exist at lower depths than the green seaweed based on the light they can absorb: Their pigments allow them to absorb blue light (Phycoerythrin), red light (Phycocyanin), and yellow light (Fucoxanthan). But I now conclude they also inhabit lower depths because of the temperatures in which they need to survive in.

Bull kelp has a range from the surface to 33 m deep. As it is a brown seaweed, it has the pigment Chlorophyl, which gives it a green appearance, and Fucoxanthan, which gives it a brown appearance. An observation we made was that the bladder at the tip of the stipe was a lighter color than the stipe, which got darker as you went down it. This may be explained by a difference in the location of pigments: there is probably less Fucoxanthan than Chlorophyl in the bladder as it is the part of the bull kelp closest to the sun. Similarily, the blades looks significantly more green than brown, because they are the parts of the Bull kelp that perform photosynthesis with the red light of the sun.

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