Supraja Nookala

Synthesis of AgNPs from marine algaes for medical applications Supraja Nookala

Marine algae and plants are a diverse collection of marine life that, together with cyanobacteria, form the main primary producers at the base of the ocean food chain. Marine primary producers are important because they underpin almost all marine animal life by generating most of the oxygen and food that animals need to exist. Some algae and plants are also ecosystem engineers which change the environment and provide habitats for other marine life. Marine algae include the largely invisible and often unicellular microalgae, which together with cyanobacteria from the ocean phytoplankton, as well as the larger, more visible and complex multicellular macroalgae commonly called seaweed. Seaweeds are found along with coastal areas, living on the floor of continental shelves and washed up in intertidal zones. Some seaweeds drift with plankton in the sunlit surface waters (epipelagic zone) of the open ocean. Back in the Silurian, some phytoplankton evolved into red, brown and green algae. These algae then invaded the land and started evolving into the land plants we know today. These are found along coasts in intertidal regions and in the brackish water of estuaries.