Global warming can be mitigated thanks to brown algae 

What comes to your mind when you hear the term algae? In one word, seaweeds! Yes, algae refer to all those kinds of marine organisms (includes both flora and fauna), that are both single and multi-celled, with diverse genetic structure.   

Now, there’s a kind of algae called brown algae that are now being deemed as the ultimate natural tool to mitigate global warming and in turn reverse climate change. Wondering how is this possible? Well, recent study reveals that these are real wonder plants that absorb high amounts of carbon dioxide from the Earth’s atmosphere. In fact, they are so useful and potent that they are able to do this job better than acres of terrestrial forests. This latest study has been published in the scientific journal Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences (PNAS) by researchers from the Max Planck Institute for Marine Microbiology. 

Okay, now here’s what we were thinking. What happens to the carbon dioxide that these algae absorb? Well, as it turns out, they use majority of the carbon from the gas compound for their own growth. The rest? They release back into the marine ecosystem, mostly in the form of sugary excretions. These substances either sink towards the ocean floor or are rapidly consumed by other aquatic organisms as food.  

What’s more interesting is that the excretions of brown algae are very complex in nature and often difficult to measure. However, the good news is, the team of researchers involved in the recent study has found a unique way to analyse them. It is called Fucoidan exploitation wherein the sulphate molecules from algae are further broken down and then scrutinised. Interestingly, these molecules are challenging for other organisms to use as they have a complicated structure. Can you guess what this means? Yes, that’s right, this makes brown algae all the more crucial as the fucoidan helps trap the carbon inside and not let it return to the atmosphere in any form. No wonder this makes brown algae a particularly useful mitigator of global heating.  

Sources also cite that brown algae absorb as much as 1 gigaton of carbon per year from the air. This means that in the long run, it can counteract a significant amount of global carbon emissions. What’s even better is brown algae exist in vast number, so here’s saying goodbye to climate change!