Chapter II

REVIEW OF RELATED LITERATURE AND STUDIES

Relevant Literature

Macroalgae are, loosely speaking, those that can be

seen with naked eye. Most of them are classified as benthic,

which is to say that they fasten themselves to the seabed.

Macroalgae come in greatly many varieties. Some of the

larger ones have complex structures with special tissues

that provide support or transport nutrients and the products

of photosynthesis; others are made up cells that are all

virtually identical. The smallest seaweeds are only a few

millimeters or centimeters in size, while the largest

routinely grow to the length of 30 to 50 meters (Erlandson,

et. al., 2015).

Seaweed cells also come in different sizes; in many

species they can measure one centimeter or more. These large

cells can contain several cell nuclei and organelles in

order to ensure that the production of proteins is

sufficient to sustain the function of the cell and the rapid

growth of the seaweed as a whole. Macroalgae are classified

into three major groups: brown algae (Phaeophyceae), green

algae (Chlorophyta), and red algae (Rhodophyta). As all of

the groups contain chlorophyll granules, their

 11

characteristic colors are derived from other pigments. Many

of the brown algae are referred to simply as kelp. It is

estimated that 1,800 different brown macroalgae, 6,200 red

macroalgae are found in the marine environment. Although the

red algae are more diverse, the brown ones are the largest.

Even though we talk about the three groups of seaweeds as if

they were closely related, this is true only to minor extent

(Erlandson, et. al., 2015).

Green algae and red algae are more closely related to

higher plants than brown algae are and, together with

diatoms, they evolved earlier than brown algae. Most species

of seaweeds have soft tissues but some are, to a greater or

lesser degree, calcified, an example being calcareous red

algae. The growth of the calcium layer is precisely

controlled by the polysaccharides that are present on their

cell walls (Erlandson, et. al., 2015).

Seaweeds, especially the brown algae, are generally

made up of three distinctly recognizable parts. At the

bottom there is a root-like structure, the holdfast, which,

as the name implies, secures the organism to its habitat. It

is usually joined by a stipe (or stem) to the leaf-like

blades. The seaweed can have one or more blades, and the

blades can have different shapes. In some cases, the blades

 12

have a distinct midrib. Photosynthesis takes place primarily

in the blades and it is, therefore, important that the stipe

is long enough to place them sufficiently close to the

surface of the water to reach the light. Some species have

air filled bladders, a familiar sight on bladder wrack,

which ensure their access to light by holding them upright

in the water. These bladders can be up to 5 centimeters in

diameter. Because brown algae are so much like plants, they

are often confused with them. Not all seaweeds share these

structures. Some smaller species have a tissue that has a

less distinctive structure, consisting only filaments of

cell, which may or may not be branched. But almost all

varieties have found their place, one way or another into

the human diet (Dillehay, et. al., 2008).

Seaweeds intended for human consumption were collected

along the seashore or picked in the sea. Those that were

eaten fresh were harvested locally and consumed in short

order. As seaweeds can be dried and, in that form, kept for

a long time and transported easily, they were recognized

early on as valuable foodstuff and became a trading

commodity. Over time, the demand for seaweeds, for a

multiplicity of purposes, grew so great that for many

 13

centuries they have been actively cultivated, especially in

the Far East (Dillehay, et. al., 2008).

In communities in Palawan, seaweed farming also plays a

role in protecting marine life, with small farmers serving

as extra eyes and ears in the fight against illegal fishing.

As climate change intensifies, warmer waters are making

seaweed farms more susceptible to pests and diseases,

threatening the survival of the industry and the families

that depend on it (Fabro, 2022).

Human and seaweed interactions seem to date back to the

Neolithic period (Dillehay et al., 2008; Ainis et al., 2014;

Erlandson et al., 2015), but the earliest written record of

their human usage originates from China, about 1700 years

ago (Yang, et. al., 2017).

For centuries, coastal populations harvested a wide

variety of seaweeds from all algal groups. Initially,

seaweeds were most often used for domestic purposes as food

and feed, whereas later, industrial uses (gels, fertilizers)

emerged (Delaney, et. al., 2016). Early examples of

utilization of seaweeds for medicinal purposes include the

Chinese use of brown algae for goitre (16th century, Chinese

herbal, ‘Pen Tsae Kan Mu’), Gelidium for intestinal

 14

afflictions and dehydrated Laminaria stipes for the dilation

of the cervix in difficult childbirths (Levine, 2016).

The industrial use of seaweed biomass has shifted over

the years, from exploiting beach-cast seaweeds as

fertilizers and a source of potash, via iodine production,

to hydrocolloid extraction (Synytsya et al., 2015). At all

stages, the ‘potential’ of the future industry has been

viewed as being larger than its actual scale and this is as

relevant today as it was 100 years ago or more, when the

industry looked very different (Hafting et al., 2015). Many

researchers foresee a future where seaweeds will be grown

for more valuable purposes than commodity food and feeds

(Neori, 2016). These include higher value uses as raw

materials for specialty polysaccharides (e.g. agar,

carrageenan and alginates: Bixler & Porse, 2011), or

transformation of the biomass into products for technical,

specialty agronomic applications (Buschmann, et al., 2008;

Craigie, 2011).

In addition, further up in the value pyramid one can

find functional products such as valuable ingredients for

food and feed (Fleurence, 2016), cosmeceuticals (Balboa et

al., 2015), nutraceuticals (Himaya & Kim, 2015),

pharmaceuticals (Thanh-Sang Vo et al., 2012; Cao et

 15

al., 2016; Anis et al., 2017), and bioenergy as a low value

but very high volume application (Korzen et al., 2015;

Fernand et al., 2016). As these different applications can

be complementary, different processing options (Camus, et.

al., 2016), including holistic approaches, have been

developed. The holistic ‘biorefinery approach’ sequentially

extracts the most valuable components from algal biomass,

leaving the remainder unadulterated for commodity purposes,

i.e. food, feed, fertilizer and fuel, while minimizing waste

and environmental impacts of the process (Baghel et

al., 2015; Trivedi, et. al., 2015).

Two environmental requirements dominate

seaweed ecology. These are seawater (or at least brackish

water) and light sufficient to support photosynthesis.

Another common requirement is an attachment point, and

therefore seaweed most commonly inhabits the littoral

zone (nearshore waters) and within that zone, on rocky

shores more than on sand or shingle. In addition, there are

few genera (e.g., Sargassum and Gracilaria) which do not

live attached to the sea floor, but float freely

(Fernand, et. al., 2016).

Seaweed occupies various ecological niches. At the

surface, they are only wetted by the tops of sea spray,

 16

while some species may attach to a substrate several meters

deep. In some areas, littoral seaweed colonies can extend

miles out to sea. The deepest living seaweed are some

species of red algae. Others have adapted to live in tidal

rock pools. In this habitat, seaweed must withstand rapidly

changing temperature and salinity and occasional drying

(Synytsya, et. al., 2015).

Macroalgae and macroalgal detritus have also been shown

to be an important food source for benthic organisms,

because macroalgae shed old fronds. These macroalgal fronds

tend to be utilized by benthos in the intertidal zone close

to the shore. Alternatively, pneumatocysts (gas filled

“bubbles”) can keep the macroalgae thallus afloat fronds are

transported by wind and currents from the coast into the

deep ocean. It has been shown that benthic organisms also at

several 100 m tend to utilize these macroalgae remnants

(Synytsya, et. al., 2015).

As macroalgae takes up carbon dioxide and

release oxygen in photosynthesis, macroalgae fronds can also

contribute to carbon sequestration in the ocean, when the

macroalgal fronds drift offshore into the deep ocean

basins and sink to the sea floor without being remineralizer

by organisms. The importance of this process for the Blue

 17

Carbon storage is currently discussed among scientists

(Rebours, et. al., 2014).

Seaweeds produce a varied and versatile biomass useful

for multiple applications. They can be used in a broad

variety of formats (e.g. fresh, dried, powder or flakes,

salted, canned, liquid extracts or as prepared foods) for

direct human consumption or processed into food additives

and nutraceuticals, feeds, fertilizers, biofuels, cosmetics

and medicines, amongst others (McHugh, 2003; Bixler &

Porse, 2011; Anis et al., 2017). Global demand for seaweeds

has been growing together with increases in usage beyond

former traditional applications (e.g., hydrocolloids:

Rebours, et. al., 2014; Hafting, et. al., 2015).

There is an increasing body of evidence that the

consumption of algal food/feed products may have health and

nutritional benefits. However, several basic questions

remain unanswered, including the impacts of seasonal and

geographical variation on the composition and nutritional

value of algal biomass (Wells, et. al., 2016).

According to the FAO, 2020; Fabro, 2022, seaweeds are

excellent sources of micronutrients such as iron and

calcium, as well as vitamins A, C and B-12. Sea plants are

 18

also the only non-fish source of natural omega-3 long-chain

fatty acids (Fabro, 2022).

According to FAO statistics, of the top seven most

cultivated seaweed taxa, three were used mainly for

hydrocolloid extraction: Eucheuma spp. and Kappaphycus

alvarezii for carrageenans and Gracilaria spp. for agar;

Saccharina japonica (formerly Laminaria japonica), Undaria

pinnatifida, Pyropia spp. (formerly Porphyra) and Sargassum

fusiforme were most important in human food usage

(FAO, 2014, 2016).

The main producing countries were China, Indonesia and

the Philippines, which were also those that cultivated the

greatest diversity of seaweed species (7, 6 and 4,

respectively; FAO, 2014, 2016).

To date, seaweeds only produce a small fraction of the

global supply of biomass with below 30 ×106 fresh weight

(FW) tons of seaweed, in comparison to 16 ×1011 tons of

terrestrial crops, grasses and forests. An expanding body of

evidence suggests that off-shore cultivated seaweeds, which

do not compete with food crops for arable land or potable

water, could provide an alternative source of biomass for

the sustainable production of food, chemicals and fuels

 19

(Radulovich, et. al., 2015; Lehahn, et. al., 2016;

Neori, 2016).

However, increasing the global production of seaweeds

requires an understanding of the critical points that

currently limit their production. Several studies developed

models for estimating the net primary productivity (NPP,

defined as g DW m–2 day–1, a measurement of the efficiency of

conversion of solar to potentially useful chemical energy)

of selected seaweeds for ecological and environmental

applications. They published a dynamic model, which

predicted NPP for Gelidium sesquipedale (Duarte & Ferreira,

1997).

The plant life in the sea is extremely rich and some

exploitation of these resources has taken place over hundred

years. At the present time, when man is increasingly turning

his attention to the ocean as a major source of food and

industrial chemicals, the plant life, both attached and

floating, is becoming of great importance. Where seaweed has

been used, both in the past and at the present, it has been

as freshly gathered plants, but there are few industries

that can use seaweeds cast up on the shore as drift,

provided it is soon collected. The great number of attached

seaweeds existing in the world is probably not fully

 20

realized: if it were, it is possible that greater efforts

would have been made in the past to find means of collecting

and using all this raw material. The minute floating plants

of the sea, the phytoplankton, from the basic foodstuff for

small animals and fish, and do not in themselves have a

direct commercial use, although recent work indicates that

artificial food chains in mariculture systems utilizing

phytoplankton as the basic tropic level are feasible (V.J.

Champman, D.J. Champman, 1980).

Seaweeds belong to a rather ill-defined assemblage of

plants known as the algae. The term “seaweeds” itself does

not have any taxonomic value, but it is rather a popular

term used to describe the common large attached (benthic)

marine algae found in the groups Chlorophyceae, Rhodophyceae

or green, red and brown algae respectively

(www.springer.com, 1987).

The algae differ from the higher plants in that they do

not possess true roots, stems or leaves. However, some of

the larger species, upon which the industries are primarily

based, possess attachment organs, or hold-fasts, that have

the appearance of roots, and there may also be a stem-like

portion called stipe, which flattens out into a broad leaf

like portion or lamina (e.g., Laminaria). Some species

 21

consist simply of a flat plate of tissue (e.g., Ulva), while

in others the plant body, or thallus, is composed of a

narrow, compressed or tubular axis with similar branches

arising from it (e.g., Gelidium). The smaller species differ

from those described above in that they are mainly

filamentous (V.J. Champman, D.J. Champman, 1980).

On the rocky coasts of Northern hemisphere, the most

conspicuous plants are usually the different kinds of brown

seaweed, although towards low-water mark there may be a

moss-like carpet of red algae around the coasts of Europe,

each one of the principal kinds of brown seaweed, and also

some of Rhodophyceae, occupy much the same relative position

on the shore. Observations of the distribution from high

water mark to below the low tide level reveal a

characteristic zonation of algae. Pelvetia canliculata will

always be found near high-water mark (Subrahmanyan, 1960).

Below Pelvetia canliculata there will commonly be a

longer species, Fucus spiralis or alternatively a closely

allied from F. platycarpus). Both of these have a broader

branching system of thallus, with a well-marked stipe at the

base arising from disc-like hold-fast. Further down, and

about the middle of the shore, two different brown algae are

to be found, these are often collectively referred to as the

 22

bladder wracks because of their vesicles. The first which

often grows to quiet considerable lengths, is known as

Ascophyllum nodosum (V.J. Champman, D.J. Champman, 1980).

The two-bladder wrack, which occurs in a zone either

above or below the Ascophyllum or else mixed with it, is

Focus vesiculusos. The vesicles, like those of Ascophyllum,

are normally full of gas, and so enable the plant to float

near the surface when the tide comes in (V.J. Champman, D.J.

Champman, 1980).

Near low-water mark there is another species, readily

recognizable by the serrated edge of the thallus, Fucus

serratus, which does not have any vesicles (V.J. Champman,

D.J. Champman, 1980).

At lower levels, the nature of the vegetation changes.

Thus, around low—tide mark of ordinary spring tides, the

first of the big oar weeds is to be found. This has a basal

attachment portion, then a stem—like stipe which expands

into a broad divided blade from which it derives its species

have been recognized, in particular, Vars, stenophylla and

Flexi caulis, commercial users of the alga do not usually

trouble to distinguish these varieties, but it may be

important that they should, because analyses show that the

 23

varieties possibly differ from the parent species in their

chemical composition (V.J. Champman, D.J. Champman, 1980).

In many places where rocks are replaced by stones or

shingle another type of oarweed is commonly found (though

it can also grow alongside L. digitata) called Laminaria

saccharina or 'sugar wrack'. It is so called because it is

sweet to the taste, owing to the presence of mannite, a

sugar alcohol. L. digitata normally grows from low—water

mark down to about two or three fathoms, where it is

replaced by a related species, Laminaria hyperborean, which

normally lives between four and twenty fathoms. In Long

Island (USA), where there is a strong current, oarweeds are

said to have been pulled up from much greater depths (V.J.

Champman, D. J Champman,1980).

Seaweeds growing in sandy or rocky places below low—

water mark, two other members of the Laminariaceae,

Saccorhiza polyschides and Alaria esculenta. The oarweeds

(Laminaria and species of allied genera) are widely

distributed in the colder waters of the northern

hemisphere. They are not able to grow in warm waters,

because the microscopic sexual generation is unable to

reproduce when the temperature of the sea is more than 1216

e
c, and they do not grow higher up on the shore because
 24

they cannot tolerate exposure for any length of time for

nearly all their life they must be covered with water. They

will only occur at higher elevations if there are deep rock

—pools in which they can grow submerged (V.J. Champman, D.

J Champman,1980).

Apart from the principal brown algae a carpet of moss-

like red seaweeds will often be found growing in the lower

half of the zone exposed at low tide: the plants not only

form an open carpet but they may also grow under the brown

seaweeds. There are two or three Irish Moss. The true Irish

Moss is Chondrus crispus; another plant very like Chondrus,

is Gigartina stellata. Towards high water mark quite a

different kind of red seaweeds, Porphyra umbilicalis, can

frequently be found, especially in spring and

summer (V.J. Champman, D. J Champman,1980).

There is one more red alga of the North Atlantic which

is used commercially. This is Palmaria palmata; it grows on

rocks near low—water, but it is often found in abundance on

the stems of Laminaria hyperborean. Considerable quantities

of this species frequently occur in the drift cast up on the

shore (V.J. Champman, D. J Champman,1980).

 25

Related Studies

A local study conducted by De Guia (2022) on the

species composition of seaweeds in selected barangays of

Biri, Northern Samar revealed that there were 30 species of

seaweeds found in the 3 sampling barangays that belonged to

15 orders, 20 families. Padina minor was identified to have

the highest percentage cover (7.8%) and the Gracilaria

salicornia had the lowest percentage cover (0. 0196). Only

four (4) species of seaweeds were found economically used

and important having a normal environmental parameter of the

entire sampling sites.

Bacalso (2022) conducted a study on the species

composition and abundance of seaweeds in selected barangays

of Laoang, Northern Samar. There were only 16 species of

seaweeds identified in the study due to the anthropogenic

activities like destroying rocks and corals for business

purposes and due to climate change like strong typhoons and

other ecological disaster.

In 2019, De Guia conducted a study on the species

composition of seaweeds in the coastal barangays of

 26

Pambujan, Northern Samar. There were 24 species of seaweeds

identified in which the green algae were the dominant with

11 species, eight (8) brown algae species, and five (5)

species of red algae. Furthermore, Neomeris annulata

(Lamoroux) had the highest percent cover (40.38%) and the

less was Caulerpa cupressoides (Vahl) C. Agard (0.2%).

In the study of Guasis (2016) on the species

composition of seaweeds in Mondragon, Northern Samar, there

were 10 species identified, namely: Caulerpaa serrulata,

Enteromorpha intestinalis, UIva reticulate, Chaetomorpha

crassa, Padina japonica, Padina minor, Sargassum

oligocystum, Sargassum polycystin, Galaxaura oblongata, and

Gracilia arcuata, respectively.

Rabas (2010) as cited by Bacalso (2022) collected and

identified 23 seaweed species in San Antonio, Northern

Samar. There were 3 research barangays in said study. In

Barangay Manraya, 21 seaweed species were identified, 12

species in Barangay Pilar, and 18 seaweed species in

Barangay Burabod. The 23 seaweed species identified belong

to 10 families, nine (9) order, 3 class.

In the study conducted by Amoyo (2007) in the

municipality of Lapinig, there were 14 species found to be

 27

present; nsamely: Caulerpa serrulata, Caulerpu

lentillifera, Halimeda cylendrica, Gracilaria salicornia,

Laurencia cartilagineu, Hormophysa cuneiformis, Padina

minor, Sargassum panniculatum, and Turbinaria ornata.

Canawayon Island had six (6) seaweed species namely: Ulva

reticulata, Galaxaura oblongata, Hormophysa cuneiformis,

and Padina minor, Sargassum panniculatum and Turbinaria

ornata. In Barangay Mabini, there were only 3 absent namely:

Hormophysa cuneiformis, Galaxaura oblongata and Udontea

orientalis. Barangay May—lgot had a total of 14 seaweed

species namely: Caulerpa lentillifera, Caulerpa serrulata,

Halimeda cylendrica, Ulva josiculata, Mastophlora rosea,

Hormophysa cuneiformis, Padina minor and Halimeda tuna.

Nofies (2007) described in her study the 27 different

seaweed species identified in the coastal areas of Palapag,

Northern Samar. Ulva reticulate was identified to have the

highest relative density, frequency and percent cover,

respectively.