Brown Algae - Ecology

Ecology

Brown algae have adapted to a wide variety of marine ecological niches including the tidal splash zone, rock pools, the whole intertidal zone and relatively deep near shore waters. They are an important constituent of some brackish water ecosystems, and four species are restricted to life in fresh water. A large number of Phaeophyceae are intertidal or upper littoral, and they are predominantly cool and cold water organisms that benefit from nutrients in up welling cold water currents and inflows from land; Sargassum being a prominent exception to this generalisation.

Brown algae growing in brackish waters are almost solely asexual.