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Specimen
031
A short video showing Navicula from sea water samples we collected during a weekend trip to Felixstowe Ferry in Suffolk. Navicula s a genus of boat-shaped algae, comprising over 1,200 species. They are pennate diatoms. Diatoms are the only known organism on Earth with cell walls composed of silica. Through a process called carbon fixation, diatoms remove carbon dioxide from the atmosphere. They are so numerous that they are among the key organisms taking the greenhouse gas carbon dioxide out of the Earth's atmosphere, significantly alleviating the impacts of climate change. The silica shells of diatoms are so heavy that when they die in the oceans they typically sink to watery graves on the seafloor, taking carbon out of the surface waters and locking it into sediments below. The carbon dioxide is converted to organic carbon and oxygen is released - it is estimated that diatoms produce 50% of the air we breathe. |