Characteristics of external carbon uptake by microalgae growth and associated effects on algal biomass composition

Abstract

Water eutrophication may be affected not only by nutrients but also the coexisting organic carbon. In order to reveal the effect of external carbon on algal growth, an experimental study was conducted using Chlorella vulgaris as the representative microalgae to investigate their growth under varied N and P levels with/without added glucose at TOC = 18 mg/L. The TOC consumption by microalgae growth depended much on N and P concentrations and N/P ratio especially when P was sufficient. This ultimately increased the specific growth rate and resulted in higher N and P accumulations but lower carbon fixation in algal biomass in contrast to non-TOC addition. The biomass dry weight became much lower with TOC addition, along with an apparent change of algal composition shown by the much lower chlorophyll contents in the microalgae cells, which might associate the extent of two carbon fixation pathways – anabolism vs catabolism.