#coralline algae

[rudebisco]

Calliarthron tuberculosum by claysteell (iNaturalist, CC-BY-NC)

[drhoz]

#3056 - Lithothamnion sp. - Crustose Coralline Algae

A red alga that forms massive encrusting growths. There's over 100 species in the genus.

One species, calcareum, is processed and added to milk substitutes as a calcium supplement. This got them in trouble in the European Union, which forbids mineral supplementation to organic foodstuffs, even if the calcium carbonate in question is derived from processed algae.

Leighton Beach, WA Naturalists Club Centenary Beach Walk, Perth, WA.

[ams-marine-bio]

Note for future macroalgae specialists

PLEASE look into desiccation avoidance adaptations for coralline algae, I just had to write a 2000 word essay on it and there is FUCK ALL information that is up to date

[noaasanctuaries]

Now presenting the rosy palace of Rose Atoll, located in National Marine Sanctuary of American Samoa! 

The reef at Rose Atoll gets its pink hues from crustose coralline algae, an unassuming friend of the coral reef ecosystem. While corals lay down their own stony skeleton, crustose coralline algae crust over and between the structures to help cement them together, forming a reef. Can you name a more iconic duo? 

 (Photo: J. Kenyon/NOAA) 

[Image description: A pink coral reef.]

[crochetbabe]

Nature, especially the ocean, gives all my inspiration for crochet. This is the skeleton of coralline algae (I believe Corallina elongata) I found on the beach. I had to take a photo because I knew I’d want to crochet it! Right now the algae is reminding me of this oakmoss lichen (Evernia prunastri) I crocheted last summer. 

[green-algae]

Coralline algae [a type of red algae; order Corallinales] photographed in Moorea, French Polynesia, by Claude Payri.

[rudebisco]

To survive in the wave-swept intertidal, it’s bend or be broken. So how do calcifying algae, with their rigid, mineralized thalli, survive here? Articulated corallines like these have evolved a unique way to be flexible without sacrificing the grazing protection that comes with their calcium carbonate cell walls - they simply add decalcified joints, called genicula, between their calcified segments, allowing them to go with the flow. 

From CBC’s The Nature of Things S59 E13: Kingdom of the Tide [X]

[noaasanctuaries]

What makes Rose Atoll in National Marine Sanctuary of American Samoa so rosy? 

Coralline algae! Pink coralline algae dominates the atoll's fringing reef, giving it a rosy hue. 

(Photo: Wendy Cover/NOAA)