Production process in Salicornia europaea plants as a prospective phototrophic constituent in bioregenerative life support systems

Abstract

Plant productivity of a common glasswort Salicornia europaea L. was investigated in relation to the type of nitrogen nutrition and as a function of macronutrient concentrations mimicking the mineral composition of human urine. The source of nutrient nitrogen had no substantial effect on productivity of Salicornia europaea. In plants grown on media with amide as a nitrogen source, the content of nitrogenous substances, including glutamic and aspartic amino acids, was higher than in plants grown with nitrate. In plants grown on media with mineral composition analogous to that of human urine, the shoots accumulated Na and K in almost equally high amounts, on the background of high and nearly equal Na and K concentrations in the nutrient media.