Algae

{
  "id": "MLC-T-ENV-001014",
  "term": "Algae",
  "field": "Environment",
  "definition": "1. Simple rootless plants that grow in sunlit waters in proportion to the amount of available nutrients. They can affect water quality adversely by lowering the dissolved oxygen in the water. They are food for fish and small aquatic animals.\n\n2. Plants without roots that grow in estuaries and \"feed\" on nutrients (such as nitrogen and phosphorus) in the water.\n\n3. Microscopic plants which contain chlorophyll and live floating or suspended in water. They also may be attached to structures, rocks or other submerged surfaces. They are food for fish and small aquatic animals. Excess algal growths can impart tastes and odors to potable water. Algae produce oxygen during sunlight hours and use oxygen during the night hours. Their biological activities appreciably affect the pH and dissolved oxygen of the water.\n\n4. Tiny, single-celled planktonic plants. Algae, or phytoplankton, are the primary producers of food and oxygen in the Bay food web.\n\n5. Simple rootless plants that grow in sunlit waters in proportion to how many nutrients are available.\n\n6. Chlorophyll-containing, mainly aquatic eukaryotic organisms lacking true stems and roots and leaves.\n\n7. Chlorophyll-bearing nonvascular, primarily aquatic species that have no true roots, stems, or leaves; most algae are microscopic, but some species can be as large as vascular plants.\n\n8. Non-vascular photosynthetic plant-like organisms, some of which live in or on the soil. They are informally divided into groups by their dominant pigments (i.e., green, blue-green, etc.)\n\n9. Algae are a diverse group of primarily aquatic organisms, often fast growing and able to live in freshwater, seawater, or damp oils. May be unicellular and microscopic or very large, as in the giant kelps.\n\n10. Chiefly aquatic, eucaryotic one-celled or multicellular plants without true stems, roots and leaves, that are typically autotrophic, photosynthetic, and contain chlorophyll. Algae are not typically found in groundwater.\n\n11. Unicellular or multicellular photosynthetic organisms that lack true roots, stems, or leaves. Includes tiny, single-celled planktonic phytoplankton, as well as large, multicellular benthic macroalgae. Common primary producers and sources of food and oxygen in freshwater and marine food web.\n\n12. Algae (algal growth) can occur when excess nutrients, warm water temperatures, and reduced flow trigger the overgrowth of naturally occurring algae into thick mats on or in the water. Blooms of algae can harm aquatic life by clogging fish gills, reducing oxygen levels, and smothering stream and lake beds and submerged vegetation. Some algae blooms can produce toxins that are harmful to human health, pets, wildlife, and livestock when touched, inhaled, or swallowed.",
  "subject": "Water",
  "references": [
    "Terms of Env; Aquatic Biodiversity Glossary; Terms of Environment",
    "Estuaries Glossary",
    "Drinking Water Technical & Legal Terms",
    "Chesapeake Bay Glossary",
    "I-BEAM Glossary of Terms",
    "National Cancer Institute Thesaurus",
    "USGS National Water-Quality Assessment (NAWQA) Program Glossary",
    "USDA Natural Resources Conservation Services Soil Ecology Terms Glossary",
    "DOE Office of Energy Efficiency & Renewable Energy Bioenergy Glossary",
    "Office of Underground Storage Tanks Technical Terms; Glossary of Technical Terms: Office of Underground Storage Tanks",
    "NSTEPS Online Glossary of Terminology; N-STEPS Online Glossary of Terms",
    "How's My Waterway Glossary"
  ],
  "url": "https://mlchart.com/terminology/environment/algae/"
}