Plants hold an important role for our life because plant is the only living being that can produce its own food. Besides it produce food for it own self, plant also became a food for both animal and human. Without the existence of plant, there will be no animal can survive because of hunger. And without plant, human will lose one food resource and soon will lose all food resources because the animal will also die without plant. Just like the plant in the land, plants in the ocean are also hold an important role for the living beings live. And here, in this article I’d like to share you with, some plants in The Pacific Ocean so you will know more about it.
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1. Kelp
Under the water, kelp usually lives together in a group and we called it as a kelp forest. Kelp will only grow in the shallow area so you don’t have to dive too deep if you want to find the kelp forest. There are about 30 different genus of it. The existence of kelp is only appear in the high nutrient seas. So if you don’t find any kelp in some certain seas, it means the nutrient is not enough to support the kelp growth. It can grows up to 80 m long beneath the sea.
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2. Seaweed
Compared to kelp, seaweed has a smaller size. Seaweed has so many branch and kelp has a wide and long leaf. This, the second plants in the pacific ocean also being used in many field, such as food, medicine, cosmetics, and etc. Because of its strong photosynthesis, seaweed contains a lot of nutrient that is so beneficial for human. So, no wonder that many people consuming seaweed in many kind of way.
3. Sea grass
In the sea floor you will see a plant called as sea grass. Just like the grass in the land, sea grass also has a long and narrow leaves. Because it gains its food by producing it through photosynthesis, the sea grass will only exist in the shallow area where the sunlight still can appear. Sea grass also become a home to some water animals such as fish, mollusks, worms, and nematode.
4. Algae
You will see the existence of algae just like the moss in the sea. It has a symbiotic relationship with some organism such as coral reef. Algae will provide coral reef food that is produced from its photosynthetic system. Besides, the coral reef will provide algae the energy that it needs such as oxygen and sugar.
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5. Phytoplankton
The next plants in the Pacific Ocean is phytoplankton. Phytoplankton is the very first base of marine food chain because it has a role as a producer in the marine life. As a producer or also known as autotropic organism, phytoplankton do the photosynthesis as a way to produce them food. Without phytoplankton there will be no life both in the sea and in the land.
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6. Diatoms
Diatoms is one of many species of phytoplankton. It is unicelluler and it is become the most common phytoplankton that you will find. This kind of plants in the Pacific Ocean may has the shape of filament or ribbon. The cell wall of the diatoms also unique because it is made of silica.
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7. Dinoflagellates
Dinoflagellates can be found in any type of water. Starts from salt water, fresh water, brackish, and even snow ice water. There are about 2000 different species of dinoflagellates and a little group of them is parasitic dinoflagellates. This plant also has an important role to make the coral reefs ecosystem last.
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8. Sea lettuce
Sea lettuce is still a family of green algae, and you can find it along the coast all around the world including Pacific Ocean. This plant is edible to eat and it can grows up to 16 inches in size. Many marine animal feed on this plant such as manatee and sea hares.
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9. Manatee seagrass
Is also known as Syringodium filiforme. This plant loves to be in the muddy and sandy areas in the depth of 20 m. The name of manatee is also given to this plant because the plant is manatee food. Besides that, manatee seagrass also became an important food for parrot fish, surgeon fish, sea urchin, and pinfish.
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10. Asian surfgrass
Having a scientific name of hyllospadix japonicus, you will directly know that you can find this plant in Japan. Besides in Japan you can also find it in China and South Korea. The asian surfgrass likes to stay around the rocky surface until the depth of 8 m. And its leave can grow up to 100 cm long.
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11. Eelgrass
Eelgrass or also known as marine eelgrass is classified into Zostera genus. And there are about 15 different species of eelgrass. This plant also became a food for Native American. They consume the plant both dried and fresh. When they dried the plant, usually they make it as an ingredient to make a cake during the winter.
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12. Enhalus seagrass
Basically enhalus is the genus of the plant. The plant it self is classified as a marine flowering plants because it has a flower that will bloom. You can find this plant through out the Western Pacific Ocean, and if you find the flower floating in the water surface it means that it is the time for pollination. From the rhizome to its leaf, this plant can reach its length up to 1 m long.
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13. Tape grasses
Tape grasses is also known as Halophila (its genus). You can find this plant in the tropical and subtropical waters, and for sure you can also find the plant in the Pacific Ocean. What is unique from this plant compare to another seagrass is that it has no basal sheaths.
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14. Turtle grass
It has a scientific name of Thalassia testudinum. The turtle grass will easier to be found in the muddy and sandy areas.Its leaf length can reach up to 30 cm long with its wide up to 2 cm. Besides that, its rhizome can be buried inside the sand up to 25 cm of depth. This species of seagrass also can’t live in the fresh water.
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15. Wire weed
Wire weed or also known as sea nymph is classified into Amphibolis genus. It has two different species which are Amphibolis antartica and Amphibolis griffthi. This plant is native to the western and southern coast of Australia. The wire weed became an important food for some species of fish and also a home for some marine animal.
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16. Sickle leaved cymodocea
Next, for the plants in The Pacific Ocean is Sickle leaved cymodocea that has a scientific name of Thalassodendron ciliatum. This plant can be found in the Indo – Pacific waters in the depth of 17 m. It can be found around the sandy bottom and coral reefs.
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17. Coralline algae
You can find coralline algae through out the world’s ocean with the depth up to 270 m where the sunlight still can penetrate the ocean waters. Coralline algae also can be found in the fresh water and brackish. It is also play an important role in the coral reefs ecosystem where it became a food for some species of marine animals. The marine animals that feed on coralline algae are sea urchins, parrot fish, limpets, and chitons.
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So this is the end of today’s article of Plants in The Pacific Ocean, hopefully this article can help you to know more and more about the deep ocean and what is exist there. Thank you for reading this article until the end and do not forget to keep following our website because there will be more interesting article about the deep ocean facts that will come.