Effects of temperature, CO 2/O 2 concentrations and light intensity on cellular multiplication of microalgae, Euglena gracilis

Abstract

Microalgae culture is likely to play an important role in aquatic food production modules in bioregenerative systems for producing feeds for fish, converting CO 2 to O 2 and remedying water quality as well as aquatic higher plants. In the present study, the effects of culture conditions on the cellular multiplication of microalgae, Euglena gracilis, was investigated as a fundamental study to determine the optimum culture conditions for microalgae production in aquatic food production modules including both microalgae culture and fish culture systems. E. gracilis was cultured under conditions with five levels of temperatures (25–33 °C), three levels of CO 2 concentrations (2–6%), five levels of O 2 concentrations (10–30%), and six levels of photosynthetic photon flux (20–200 μmol m −2 s −1). The number of Euglena cells in a certain volume of solution was monitored with a microscope under each environmental condition. The multiplication rate of the cells was highest at temperatures of 27–31 °C, CO 2 concentration of 4%, O 2 concentration of 20% and photosynthetic photon flux of about 100 μmol m −2 s −1. The results demonstrate that E. gracilis could efficiently produce biomass and convert CO 2 to O 2 under relatively low light intensities in aquatic food production modules.