The science algology is engaged in studying seaweed. Seaweed play very important role in development and maintenance of life on the earth, 80% of organic compounds are formed on our planet thanks to these organisms. In the future seaweed can become one of the main sources of food and fuel for mankind.
General information
Seaweed - big group of living organisms to which not only plants, but also some bacteria and protests belong therefore to call algology the section of botany - a mistake, on modern representations, algology is a section of biology.
The autotrophic type of food and existence of a chlorophyll is characteristic of all types of seaweed. Unlike other autotrophic organisms of an alga have no division of a body into bodies, all their organism consists of the same cages and is called tallomy. Allocate twelve types of the organization of tallom.
Seaweed live either in water, or in very damp environment. The sizes of seaweed strongly differ - even multicellular seaweed can have the microscopic sizes, but at the same time some reach 50 meters in length.
At the moment algology divides all seaweed into 11 departments. At the same time representatives of departments can differ extremely from each other and have different origin.
It is important to study seaweed including because they can shed light on development of life on Earth. Blue-green seaweed are considered as the emergence reason on our planet of the oxygencontaining atmosphere. Seaweed are a basis of all water food chains. Many rocks were formed of seaweed. For the first time in separate group of an alga allocated with Carle Linnia, but algology was allocated in separate science only in the 20th century.
Relevance of algology
Seaweed are important for mankind already now and can become irreplaceable in the future. Algolog are engaged not only studying the existing species of seaweed, but also remove new types which simpler and cheaper to cultivate and also develop ways of use of seaweed. Already now in many countries of an alga are an important part of food - eat them as in the natural form, and as a part of other products in which seaweed are used as cheap and useful biomass. There is a set of projects which assume use of seaweed as a basis for overcoming hunger in the poor countries and solutions of a global food problem which becomes more and more obvious with rapid growth of the population of Earth.
Seaweed go not only to food to the person, the much bigger quantity of seaweed is used as a cheap forage for the cattle.
Seaweed use for biological sewage treatment that is very relevant in the modern world where clear fresh water becomes more and more valuable product. Seaweed can solve power problems of mankind, there are several projects on receiving biofuel from them, and emergence of the cars using fuel from seaweed shortly is not excluded.