Question

- In what ways might algae benefit other organisms in the water?

- In what ways might algae harm other organisms?

- Suppose you are responsible for "cleaning up" a lake that is polluted with algae. What would you do, and why?

Answer 1

Ans.

how are they beneficial to other oragnisms in water can be described as follows.

They are living in symbiotic relation with many other water organisms.For example water sponges.They both give some benefits to each other.algae provide food and nutrition to sponges and sponges in return provide shelter and protect against predators.Other example can be coral reef. Coral reef get energy from microscopic algae.Algae help in speeding up the metabolism of coral reef.In return coral reef provide shelter to algae.

Algae can harm other organisms in many ways.

Algae are marine plants and they can multiply very fast.They can grow on the surface of water covering large area forming algal blooms.This can cause oxygen depletion for fishes in water. Also some algae produce toxins which cause death of many marine ecosystems like sea turtles, fishes.

If i have to clean the lake first i will stop any drainage water from mixing into it which cause growth of algal blooms.Some algae are beneficial to other marine organisms so instead of cleaning whole algae I will try to control growth of algae by growing other species like some viruses and mollusks which could control algal growth.