Effects of energy storage by the seaweeds on their ecosystem

다국어 초록 (Multilingual Abstract)

In marine environment, every species store energy for its own use and deliver it to its predator. Phytoplankton and seaweeds take place at the beginning of the food chain, grow in shallow waters with photosynthesis, and compete for the solar energy. Although the biomass of the phytoplankton amounts 1%‐2% of the total global plant carbon, they carry out more than 40% of the global photosynthesis. In the food chain, the largest amount of exergy is destroyed and the largest amount of entropy is generated while going from the first to the second species in the food chain, most probably because of the conversion of the plant cell into an animal cell. Results of this study indicated that the chemical nature of the stored material, for example, fat, protein, or carbohydrate, is not related with the location of the species in the food chain. Global production of macroalgae was approximately 3 million tons in 2012, and their consumption is projected to reach 13 million tons by 2050. If the energy available for the phytoplankton should be stored by the seaweeds grown in man‐made farms in irrational amounts, competition of the seaweeds with the phytoplankton may be a major blow to marine ecology.