Suitability of Inland Saline Ground Water for the Growth of Marine Microalgae for Industrial Purposes

Abstract

Australia enjoys large inland areas rich in saline waters with potentials to marine aquaculture. In this study, these potentials were examined. Initially 9 different species of marine micro algae from three different divisions, namely Chlorophyta, Bascillariophyta and Chrysophyta, were cultivated using batch culture techniques to examine their growth performance in inland saline ground water (ISGW) with f/2 algae culture media. Dunaliealla tertiolecta was found to have highly significant growth performance while Nitzschia closterium showed significantly negative growth. In general, the average cell densities of all species of Chlorophyta were found to be higher compared to all species of Chrysophyta and Bascillariophyta. Significant differences of lipid were found to be in the Chlorophyta group compare to other two groups. The study successfully demonstrated that the marine microalgal group of Chlorophytes can be successfully grown in ISGW. However microalgae cultivation in ISGW still has enormous potential despite the negative growth of two diatom species and comparatively slow growth of Chrysophytes algae in this study. More controlled research on different groups of microalgae would be a good investment and a synergistic approach is recommended, including water chemistry, hydro-geology, soilwater interactions of and nutritional profiles of microalgae in ISGW.