Welcome! My name is Hayley and I will be guiding you through the life of an aquatic microorganism called the giant kelp. 

I was extremely excited to have the option of visiting the Georgia Aquarium as my site visit because as an undergraduate majoring in the field of biology, I have taken several courses that involve plant and marine organisms and environments. My background involves plant and marine biology, along with aquatic pollution and toxicology. While completing these courses, I grew an inevitable interest in studying aquatic ecosystems and the individual roles of certain indicator organisms and keystone species. 

The aquarium was mostly filled with tiny people running around on that busy Saturday, but with me being 4’9″, I fit right in! Amongst all the massive marine animals that were displayed, my goal was to discover some marine microorganisms. While the corals really caught my eye, the courses I have taken in college have focused pretty heavily on corals, therefore I decided to further study something I know less about, the kelp. This allows me to broaden both mine and my audience’s knowledge of this microorganism. This visit was a great opportunity for me to visualize living kelp, although it was in an artificial environment. 

Now I know kelps can get pretty large so how is this a microorganism you ask? Well, the kelps are known as large brown algae seaweeds, therefore they are not classified as plants. Brown algae are multicellular algae that grow in marine environments, sometimes as floating mats of seaweed or other times as benthic organisms attached to the seafloor. The giant kelp is part of the animal kingdom know as Protista. The order and class it belongs in are Laminariales and Phaeophyceae, respectively. The specific species I will be focusing on is Macrocystis pyrifera in which the giant kelp is classified. The giant kelp is pictured in the center of the featured image. Another group that is classified by molecular similarities and contains the brown algae is called Stramenophiles, which also contains diatoms and golden algae.

I’m excited to learn more about these microorganisms that really aren’t so micro, but in fact, some of the largest of its kind. A large underwater area that contains giant kelps that can grow up to almost 150 feet high is known as a kelp forest; you can think of them as the trees of the marine environment. If that doesn’t show how big they are, I don’t know what does!

My goal within this blog is to kelp both you and I learn more about this specific marine microorganism! Oops…I meant help!