Paragraph 1: Seaweeds are multicellular algae that inhabit the oceans. Despite their evolutionary distance from each other, seaweeds — such as brown algae, red algae, and green algae — have in common many aspects of their biology and contributions to the ecology of the seas.
Paragraph 2: Most species of seaweed are benthic (living on the seafloor); they grow on rock, sand, mud, and coral on the sea bottom. Other species live on other organisms and as part of fouling communities (plants and animals that live on pilings, boat bottoms, and other artificial surfaces). Some seaweeds attach to very specific surfaces, whereas other seaweeds are rather nonselective. In general, seaweeds inhabit about 2 percent of the seafloor. The presence of benthic seaweeds defines the inner continental shelf, where the marine community largely depends on the food and protection that seaweeds provide. Life on the outer continental shelf and in the deep sea is quite different in the absence of seaweeds. The distinction between the inner and outer shelves is based on the compensation depth of algae. The compensation depth is the depth of water at which there is just enough light for algae to survive. At that depth all the oxygen produced by photosynthesis is consumed by the algae’s respiration, so that no further growth can occur.
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