Abstract
Coastal water pollution is an important environmental problem now days. Hizikia fusiforme is cultivated in coastal water, being considered as a healthy food. However, little information exists concerning on this species responses to copper stress conditions. Experiments were conducted to distinguish biological adsorption and biological accumulation of H. fusiforme in regard to copper stress; it was determined the long-term stress with lower concentrations of copper (0.25 mg/L and 0.50 mg/L) and short-term stress with higher concentrations of copper (1.5 mg/L and 3.0 mg/L) on H. fusiforme. Results suggested that H. fusiforme has different response to various copper stresses; lower concentration stress could significantly enhance the growth of H. fusiforme, while H. fusiforme growth was inhibited and mitigated injured by 0.25-0.50 mg/L copper stress. Under the highest stress, H. fusiforme was extremely harmed, the biomass loss was significant and dry weight/fresh weight was also significantly decreased. Results suggested that lower and higher concentrations of copper stress have different impacts on H. fusiforme; the biological adsorption amount is lower than that of biological accumulation amount under low copper stress conditions, but the biological adsorption amount is much higher under high concentration copper stress. A better understanding of H. fusiforme responses to heavy metal stress should bring more data about its physiological adaptation mechanism under such conditions.
Highlights
Large algae are mainly distributed in coastal intertidal zones, which are the primary producers and assure energy transformation of marine ecological system
When H. fusiforme seedlings were cultured for 24 h in natural seawater, each group was used for copper stress: (1) lower concentration stress conditions (0.25 mg/L and 0.5 mg/L) for 7 d, and biomass of the samples was measured in 1 d, 3 d, 5 d and 7 d during stress periods; (2) higher concentration stress conditions (1.5 mg/L and 3.0 mg/L) for 24 h, and biomass of the samples was measured
Results obtained from the current study clearly demonstrated the different responses of H. fusiforme to longterm of lower concentration copper stress (0.25 mg/L and 0.50 mg/L) and short-term of higher concentration copper stress (1.5 mg/L and 3.0 mg/L)
Summary
Large algae are mainly distributed in coastal intertidal zones, which are the primary producers and assure energy transformation of marine ecological system. Under the background of global environmental changes, marine organisms and ecological systems are always affected by the interactions of many environment factors (Brierley and Kingsford, 2009). China is the largest algae cultivation country in the world; some species such as Laminaria japonica and Porphyra are very famous, but coastal water pollution, especially heavy metal pollution, has damaging effects on large algae cultivation (Tan et al, 2002; Wang et al, 2009). Little information exists concerning the physiological responses of large algae such as Hizikia fusiforme to heavy metals stress
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