Maximizing duckweed biomass production for food security at low light intensities: Experimental results and an enhanced predictive model

Abstract

Aquatic macrophytes offer an excellent pathway to promote circular agricultural systems through the recovery and upcycling of waste nutrients into valuable agricultural products. The prolific aquatic plant and nutrient scavenger, duckweed (family Lemnaceae), is known not only for its wastewater treatment capabilities but also for its potential as a protein alternative compared to traditional plant and animal sources due to its high nutritional quality and low environmental impact. Although duckweed is known to grow under a wide range of environmental conditions, current models representing duckweed growth kinetics do not include variable(s) to quantify the effect of light intensity. In this work, data from our own experiments and from the literature were utilized to enhance an intrinsic duckweed growth model with a light intensity term, thereby dramatically improving the accuracy of specific growth rate predictions from an R2 of 0.27 to 0.67. The resulting validated model helps advance our knowledge of duckweed's resilience to changing environmental conditions, with applications from enhancing food security under adverse climatic conditions to the optimization of vertical farming operations which strive to maximize food production while minimizing external inputs.