Abstract
To reach the goal of an industrialised macroalgae industry in Norway and other high-cost countries in the near future, a standardised seedling production method to improve quality control and predictability of cultivated biomass is essential. A total of 11 different treatments for seeding twine or rope with meiospores, gametophytes or juvenile sporophytes from the kelp Saccharina latissima were measured for growth (frond length, frond area, biomass yield and density) and protein content after 80 and 120 days at sea. Meiospore- and gametophyte-seeded twines were pre-cultivated in the hatchery for 14–42 days prior to deployment, while juvenile sporophytes of different ages were seeded on ropes directly on the day of deployment using a commercial binder to attach the seedlings. The results showed that seeding with meiospores pre-cultivated in the hatchery for 42 days (S42) before deployment gave significantly longer fronds (77.0 ± 6.7 cm) and a higher biomass yield (7.2 ± 0.1 kg m−1) at sea compared to other treatments. The poorest growth was measured for the direct-seeded sporophytes pre-cultivated in free-floating cultures for 35 days prior to deployment (D35; 34.4 ± 2.4 cm frond length and 1.6 ± 0.4 kg m−1). Image analysis was used to measure the coverage of the twine substrate before deployment, and a correlation was found between substrate coverage and frond length at sea, indicating that this can be used as a tool for quantity and quality control during the hatchery phase and before deployment. The protein content did not reveal any large differences between the treatments after 120 days of cultivation.
Highlights
The macroalga Saccharina latissima (Phaeophyceae) is one of the most attractive species for cultivation in the North Atlantic Ocean due to its fast growth and high content of valuable components (Holdt and Kraan 2011; Handå et al 2013; Peteiro and Freire 2013; Sharma et al 2018; Bak 2019)
This study has demonstrated that different seeding methods and hatchery periods had high impact on the growth performance of S. latissima at sea
Twine seeded with spores precultivated in the hatchery for 42 days gave significantly better growth measurements than any of the other treatments tested in this experiment
Summary
The macroalga Saccharina latissima (Phaeophyceae) is one of the most attractive species for cultivation in the North Atlantic Ocean due to its fast growth and high content of valuable components (Holdt and Kraan 2011; Handå et al 2013; Peteiro and Freire 2013; Sharma et al 2018; Bak 2019). In 2017 Europe contributed less than 1000 t of S. latissima to the global production of cultivated macroalgae of about 30 million t (Ferdouse et al 2018), with China and other Asian. Most cultivated macroalgae species can be grown through vegetative propagation, the production of seedlings is mandatory for several important commercial species. The spores develop into female and male gametophytes, and fertilisation leads to the development of microscopic sporophytes that grow to adult size (Kain 1979). For any seaweed species grown through sexual reproduction, optimising hatchery production processes is crucial to the success of sea farming. Standardisation of cultivation procedures and strategies is essential to overcome low predictability of production quantity and quality, and to lower the production costs
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