FROM THE MET OFFICE

Met Office Ascension Island Base

The Met Office Weather Report

Statistics for the week ending Monday 16th December 2019

Tide Times & Georgetown Pierhead/English Bay Swell Outlook
For more detailed information, including swimming and swell warnings, please contact the Met Office on Ext. 63317

Seaweeeeeed! Compiled by Sonny Daye

Seaweed is actually a form of algae rather than a plant, and the name encompasses many species. Seaweed can be as minute as the one-celled phytoplankton, or as large as 100 feet long. Although not categorized as a plant, seaweed has much the same growing requirements as its land-dwelling cousins: light, water and nutrition. Unlike its land-based cousins, seaweed doesn't need roots or a system for transporting water and nutrients.

Seaweed is photosynthetic, so it needs sunlight. It converts sunlight to energy through photosynthesis, which uses chlorophyll, the green pigment in plants. In addition, because there is less available light under water, seaweed uses other pigments to harness light not absorbed well by chlorophyll.