why are the ocean plants important?
By: chandler hamby, Esperanza, Grade ma A: Aloha Chandler, Ocean plants are extremely important to the world’s oceans as they are the only creatures capable of taking sunlight, and using it to make complex molecules called sugars. Without the sugars created by plants, 99% of all the ocean’s animals couldn’t live. Herbivorous (plant eating) fish and other animals eat the plants and absorb the sugars, and these in turn are eaten by larger animals. In this way, the sugars work their way up the food chain and may eventually became part of a whale or a shark. When the shark or whale dies, bacteria break down the body into basic molecules of carbon dioxide and water. These may be absorbed by a planktonic (free floating) algae cell (the majority of the ocean’s plants), which uses sunlight to convert them into a sugar and the entire process begins again. If you look up the term “photosynthesis” in the encyclopedia or on the internet, I believe you’ll find some handy references and maybe some g
