----Fact 1----
Who do you think is the most important organism on the earth?
......??
The most important organism on earth is Algae.
....How??
More than 50 % of all the oxygen we breathe comes from algae! Without them we would really be sucking wind, but not for long!
....Yo! What about the trees and other land plants? Why does so much of oxygen come from Algae?
First of all, remember that the oceans cover about 71 percent of this planet and land is only about 29 percent. If we assume that every square mile of the ocean produces as much oxygen as every square mile of land, then this makes sense. The oceans would produce about 71 percent and the land 29 percent of the oxygen we breathe.
Phytoplankton (Fig.1) are tiny microscopic plants - algae - that form the base of the marine food chain. Phytoplankton is most abundant in colder waters where there is an abundance of nutrients.
Fig. 1:
Even marine seaweed is many times colonial algae. They are a bunch of single cells trying to look like a big plant (see Fig.2), but they are really individuals.
Fig. 2:
----Fact 2----
Rainforests are the oldest living ecosystems on the planet. They cover 2 percent of the Earth's surface or 6 percent of land, and are an important source of oxygen. They also are home to many of the Earth's plant and animal species, but they also play a vital role in sustaining life beyond their ecosystems as they help regulate global climate and water cycle. Pictured below is a small section of the Brazilian rainforest, the Earth's largest.
----Fact 3----
The Atlantic ocean is getting bigger and the pacific ocean is getting smaller !
Twenty million years ago there was no Atlantic Ocean. But then, thanks to plate tectonics, the South American and North American continents were separated by a rift valley that eventually turned into the Atlantic Ocean. The complementary shapes of the South American and African continents have long been noticed, but it wasn't until the 1960s that the theory of plate tectonics became accepted as the explanation.
These days, the Atlantic Ocean is growing at a rate of five centimeters per year, as new sea floor is created by volcanic activity along its mid-ocean ridge.
On the other hand, the much older Pacific Ocean is currently estimated to be shrinking by two to three centimeters each year. Again, this comes down to plate tectonics because the Pacific Ocean has subduction zones on three sides — where the Pacific plate submerges beneath other plates.
The Pacific's "Ring of Fire" broadly maps the areas where this subduction occurs and accounts for around 90 per cent of the world's earthquakes.
-----Fact 4----
More than 25 % of medicines we use originate from rainforest plants:
Yet only 1% of rainforest plants have been studied for medicinal properties. Every second an area of rainforest the size of a football pitch is cut down meaning every day we might lose a potential cure.
-----Fact 5----
Tallest tree of the world: It is called Hyperion-
It's a coast redwood from California that measures an incredible 115.61m tall.
While the oldest tree is Great Basin bristle-cone pine tree from the White Mountains in California.
It's still living at an incredible 5063 years old. Old Tjikko is the oldest single-clonal tree (meaning a new trunk is grown from original roots) at an astonishing 9,550 years old.
----Fact 6----
Pando, also known as The Trembling Giant is a colony of quaking aspen trees (shown below) which is assumed to be connected by single massive root systems ! So, they are believed to be about 80,000 years old.
Source: The Most Important Organism? | Ecology Global Network
10 facts about our amazing oceans
