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Seaweed Stickers!
Seaweed Mermaids
Bladderwrack | Pyropia | Macarenia
On a Bed of Sea Wrack.
[Photo: Olivia V. Ambrogio]
Did you ever wonder how sea weed reproduce? no? well, neither did i until today. It's actually quite interesting. Take the Bladder Wrack, Fucus vesiculosus, for example. Much like humans, there is a female and male, and egg and sperm involved. However, chances are reproduction are a bit worse.
See, when the Bladder Wrack reproduces, the female releases eggs, and the male releases sperm. The eggs float up the the surface, and the sperm swim endlessly around the water until a point where it manages to fertalize an egg - this is not easy, most eggs are eaten by grazers and float away in the current.
Right after fertilisation the formed zygote sinks like a rock, producing an adhesive surface hoping to stick to the right hard substrate - if it doesn't, its done.
THEN, it has to compete for this space with other wrack germlings and other sea weeds, pretty much survival of the fittest.
Its a wonder any Bladder Wracks exist at all.
Phycology is fun!
sorry about the horrible picture, but there isn't a single good picture of bladderwrack on the web. Prove me wrong, please!
