Paramecia is a form of protist.
Organisms can be divided into prokaryotes (single-celled primitive life forms without a cell nucleus) and eukaryotes (which have a cell nucleus and include animals and plants). Protists belong to the eukaryotes, but they form an extremely diverse group that includes everything except animals, plants, and fungi. Some are unicellular, while others are multicellular, but are distinguished from non-protists by not having organs or different types of tissue. While they appear to provide no proven direct benefits to humans, they play a crucial ecological role and without them more advanced life forms could not have evolved. They also have several important uses.
two protists.
Most protists are microscopic, but some are only visible to the naked eye and others can form large colonies and structures. They include protozoa (motile, single-celled organisms) and various types of algae, such as diatoms (tiny photosynthetic life forms with silica shells) and seaweeds that can grow up to 100 feet in length. While some protozoa are responsible for serious human illness, most are harmless, and protists in general are crucial to the world’s ecosystems.
Ecological Papers
Algae, which are made of protists, play an important role in maintaining the planet’s oxygen levels.
Algae and diatoms use photosynthesis to produce food, absorbing carbon dioxide from the atmosphere and releasing oxygen. These protists are extremely numerous in the oceans and fresh water and thus play an important role in maintaining the planet’s oxygen levels and carbon storage. In fact, algae produce around half of the oxygen generated by photosynthesis on the planet. Along with other protists, they make up a large part of the marine plankton, which is the lowest level of the oceanic food chain and therefore a crucial part of the marine ecology. In the soil, soil protozoa help plants grow by consuming bacteria and releasing their nutrients in a form that roots can easily absorb.
Contaminated water treatment
Certain protists, such as algae, can be used as a food source in dishes such as sushi and are very rich in nutrients such as iodine.
Sewage and other forms of sewage can pose a serious threat to human health and cause great damage to ecosystems if it is simply dumped into rivers or the ocean. Hence, it is sent to treatment plants to eliminate harmful bacteria, bad odors and suspended organic matter. Protozoa play an important role in this process, preying on bacteria and consuming large amounts of organic matter, helping to clarify the water and making it safe for disposal.
Protists as a food source.
Protists help control bacterial populations in the human intestine.
Many types of algae are edible and are an important food source in some coastal regions. Seaweed is farmed in some countries, such as Indonesia and the Philippines, both for food and for the useful substances that can be extracted from it. Some of them are used as food additives, for example as gelling agents and to improve water retention. Seaweed is also a good source of the essential element iodine.
direct benefits
The wastewater travels through sewer lines to a treatment facility, where it is typically broken down anaerobically.
It may be that protozoa help control bacterial populations in the human gut. There are a wide variety of bacteria normally present in the human gut and most of the time they are either beneficial, helping to break down food, or harmless. However, it is believed that the protozoa that feed on these organisms can help keep their numbers in check and prevent imbalances between the different types.
Scientific research and other uses
Algae for biofuels can be grown on land unsuitable for most other uses.
Protists have been the subject of a great deal of research, not only to improve our knowledge of the organisms themselves, but also to help understand more general biological processes. Slime molds, for example, are large colonies of amoeba-like organisms that crawl in unison over soil, tree bark, and other moist surfaces, consuming various microorganisms as they go. They are unusual in that instead of consisting of clearly defined cells, they simply have a large number of nuclei floating within the cellular fluid, like a huge cell with many nuclei. At some point, this mobile, animal-like phase comes to an end and the slime mold stops moving to form structures that release spores. Biologists study slime molds to learn more about the ways cells behave and differentiate.
Protists are a group of life forms that are neither plants nor animals.
Diatom remains are also useful to scientists. When these organisms die, their tiny silica shells fall to the bottom of the ocean or lake, forming sediments known as diatomaceous earth. Different species, which can be identified by their shells, have different preferences regarding water temperature, so by studying ancient samples of diatomaceous earth, scientists can learn a lot about past climates.
There are a number of other practical uses for diatomaceous earth. It is porous, but the spaces between the particles that make it up are very small, which makes it useful for filtering water and other liquids. It is used in many filtration systems and has the advantage of being chemically very inert, so it can be used to filter liquids that would react with filter paper. Since diatom shell fragments are hard and often sharp, diatomaceous earth can be used as an abrasive in cleaning powders and pastes. It is also added to animal feed to rid cattle of intestinal worms; the abrasive effect damages the worm’s tissue and eventually kills it.