Malta, Eric-jan, and de Nys, Rocky (2016) The effect of short-term preharvest strategies on the carbon constituents of Ulva ohnoi M. Hiraoka et S. Shimada. Journal of Applied Phycology, 28 (1). pp. 555-565.

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Abstract

One of the main challenges of seaweed culture is to maximize the content of potentially valuable carbon constituents while maintaining high growth rates, thereby improving the value of culture process. This may be achieved by the manipulation of cultivation conditions, inducing a short-term imbalance in carbon metabolism. Here, we tested this concept in the chlorophyte seaweed Ulva ohnoi in a pilot land-based seaweed cultivation system. A first experiment used an abrupt 95 % reduction in water flow and therefore nutrient flux. The content of carbohydrate and lipid of Ulva increased by 16 and 14 % respectively within 2 days compared to the control, whereas growth rates decreased by <5 %. Consequently, the total yield of carbohydrate and lipid increased by ≥10 % compared to the control treatment. A second experiment used a reduction in the density of Ulva under culture by 50 % compared to a control thereby significantly increasing light and the proportional supply of nutrients. The growth rate of Ulva increased by 50 % within 4 days compared to the control, however, there was no change in biochemical composition. Photosynthetic efficiency (effective and maximum quantum yield of photosystem II using Chl a fluorescence) did not respond to the conditions in both experiments. We conclude that short-term treatments can contribute to a preharvest strategy to either improve the biochemical composition or the growth rate of cultivated algae that can in turn lead to an increased yield of targeted compounds.

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