Marine Living

Brown algae is the largest, most complex type of algae. This type of marine algae is brown, olive or yellowish-brown in color. Brown algae contains contains chlorophyll a and c and a pigment called fucoxanthin, which gives it its color.

Fucoxanthin is not found in other algae or plants. Unlike red and green algae, brown algae are in the Kingdom Chromista.

Like other algae, the distribution of brown algae is broad, from tropical to polar zones. Brown algae can be found in intertidal zones, near coral reefs and in deeper waters, with a NOAA study noting them at 165 feet in the Gulf of Mexico.

There are about 1,800 species of brown algae. The largest, and one of the most well-known, is kelp. Other examples of brown algae include seaweeds in the genus Fucus commonly known as "rockweed," or "wracks," and the genus Sargassum, which form floating mats and are the most prominent species in the area known as the Sargasso Sea, which is in the middle of the North Atlantic Ocean.

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