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Why isn't the ocean full off massive plants? (lemmy.ca)
submitted 4 days ago by 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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[โ€“] 1 point 3 days ago

I'd imagine that plants need to grow big on land in order to be taller than the other plants to avoid competition for sunlight. In the water you can only go as high as the surface, and you didn't need to grow any bigger to get there, so microscopic plants won out. Why grow big and complicated if you can get all the sun you need by just being small and finding a little spot at the surface?

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