Laboratory Exercise No. 12 Algae

INTRODUCTION

            Algae are the common name for photosynthetic organisms that lack true roots, stems and leave. They may be found in the ocean and n freshwater and on most tree bark and soil. They may be unicellular, colonial, filamentous or multicellular. They exhibit wide range of shapes from the giant brown and red algae to spherical green algal colonies. They are classified according to their pigments, storage products, chemical composition of their cell walls and flagella. Their diversity is illustrated by their classification in three kingdoms: Plantae, Monera and Protists.

Major Groups of Algae

Characteristics	Major group of Algae
	Monera	Algal protists
	Cyanobacteria	Euglenoids	Diatoms	Green algae
Color	Blue-green	green	Yellow-brown	Green
Cell wall	Bacteria-like	lacking	Readily visibly with regular marking	Visible
Cell type	Prokaryote	Eukaryote	Eukaryote	Eukaryote
Flagella	Absent	present	absent	Present in some
Cell arrangement	Unicellular or filamentous	unicellular	Unicellular or colonial	Unicellular, colonial or filamentous
Nutrition	Autotrophic	Facultative heterorophic	Autotrophic	Autotrophic
Produce oxygen	Yes some use bacterial photosynthesis	Yes	Yes	Yes

OBJECTIVES:

1.     To be able to distinguish algae from fungi and bacteria.

2.     To be able to characterize major groups of algae in culture.

3.     To quantify algae present in water sample.

METHODOLOGY

1.     Examine the sample using the high and low power objectives and identify the algae present,

2.     Classify the algae according to characteristics listed:

RESULTS AND DISCUSSION

1. Why can algae be considered indicators of productivity as well as pollution?
2. How can algae be responsible for the production of more oxygen than land plants?
3. Why are algae not included in the Kingdom Plantae?
4. How algae differ from fungi? How are they similar?

REFERENCES