Division of Plant Science, University of Dundee at the James Hutton Institute, Invergowie, Dundee DD2 5DA, UK.
Laboratorio di Fisiologia delle Alghe e delle Piante, Dipartimento di Scienze della Vita e dell'Ambiente, Università Politecnica delle Marche, via Brecce Bianche, 60131 Ancona, Italy; Institute of Microbiology ASCR, Algatech, Trebon 37981, Czech Republic.
Curr Biol. 2014 Jul 7;24(13):R590-5. doi: 10.1016/j.cub.2014.05.039.
Algae frequently get a bad press. Pond slime is a problem in garden pools, algal blooms can produce toxins that incapacitate or kill animals and humans and even the term seaweed is pejorative - a weed being a plant growing in what humans consider to be the wrong place. Positive aspects of algae are generally less newsworthy - they are the basis of marine food webs, supporting fisheries and charismatic marine megafauna from albatrosses to whales, as well as consuming carbon dioxide and producing oxygen. Here we consider what algae are, their diversity in terms of evolutionary origin, size, shape and life cycles, and their role in the natural environment and in human affairs.
藻类经常受到负面评价。池塘中的黏液是花园水池的一个问题，藻类大量繁殖会产生毒素，使动物和人类丧失能力甚至死亡，甚至海藻这个词也是贬义词——杂草是指生长在人类认为不合适的地方的植物。藻类的积极方面通常不太具有新闻价值——它们是海洋食物网的基础，支持渔业和从信天翁到鲸鱼等有魅力的海洋巨型动物，同时还消耗二氧化碳并产生氧气。在这里，我们将探讨藻类是什么，它们在进化起源、大小、形状和生命周期方面的多样性，以及它们在自然环境和人类事务中的作用。
