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Why isn't the ocean full off massive plants? (lemmy.ca)

submitted 2 days ago by Pyr_Pressure@lemmy.ca to c/asklemmy@lemmy.ml

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Only just realized this when watching a diving video.

But why isn't the ocean full of massive plants? The surface of the earth is covered is giant trees working to fight against gravity, wind, and fire.

But in the ocean you have little things like coral beds and sponges and maybe a kelp forest.

Seeing as weight is massively reduced, and the closer you get to the surface means more light, and water and nutrients are probably plentiful... Why isn't the plant life more massive? What is the limiting factor to things evolving to be bigger?

Only thing I can think of is CO2 perhaps?

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[–] Polisheocket@lemmy.zip 2 points 2 days ago (1 children)

Kelp plants can get pretty massive

[–] RandomHugs@lemmy.world 2 points 2 days ago (1 children)

That was my thought as well. But apparently they are known for their fast growth —the genera can grow as fast as half a metre a day (that is, about 20 inches a day), ultimately reaching 30 to 80 metres (100 to 260 ft.

[–] brownsugga@lemmy.world 0 points 1 day ago (1 children)

Yeah great point sunlight only penetrates so far into water, and plant life I think is classified as using photosynthesis

[–] Slatlun@lemmy.ml 2 points 1 day ago (1 children)

There are plants that don't photosynthesize, though most do. Check out ghost pipes if you want to see one of the exceptions. They're pretty cool

[–] brownsugga@lemmy.world 1 points 1 day ago

Neat!