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Abstract
After a 1.5-year screening survey in the lagoons of Western Greece in order to isolate and culture sturdy species of microalgae for aquaculture or other value-added uses, as dictated primarily by satisfactory potential for their mass culture, five species emerged, and their growth was monitored in laboratory conditions. Amphidinium carterae, Nephroselmis sp., Tetraselmis sp. (var. red pappas), Asteromonas gracilis, and Dunaliella sp. were batch cultured using low (20 ppt), sea (40 ppt), and high salinity (50 or 60 or 100 ppt) and in combination with low (2000 lux) and high (8000 lux) intensity illumination. The results exhibited that all these species can be grown adequately in all salinities and with the best growth in terms of maximum cell density, specific growth rate (SGR), and biomass yield (g dry weight/L) at high illumination (8000 lux). The five species examined exhibited different responses in the salinities used, whereby Amphidinium clearly performs best in 20 ppt, far better than 40 ppt, and even more so than 50 ppt. Nephroselmis and Tetraselmis grow almost the same in 20 and 40 ppt and less well in 60 ppt. Asteromonas performs best in 100 ppt, although it can grow quite well in both 40 and 60 ppt. Dunaliella grows equally well in all salinities (20, 40, 60 ppt). Concerning the productivity, assessed as the maximum biomass yield at the end of the culture period, the first rank is occupied by Nephroselmis with ~3.0 g d.w./L, followed by Tetraselmis (2.0 g/L), Dunaliella (1.58 g/L), Amphidinium (1.19 g/L), and Asteromonas (0.7 g/L) with all values recorded at high light (8000 lux).
Highlights
As microalgae have established a foothold in our civilization in terms of an effective source of products for various uses, the quest for novel species suitable for culture or the improvement of existing culture techniques are both welcomed
We found that our local strain of Dunaliella grew well in all salinities (20, 40, and 60 ppt) reaching more than 25 × 106 cells/mL after 3 weeks in light conditions of 8000 lux, and to this point, concerning the effect of light in particular, we are in accordance with most other studies [57,58,59,60,61] but in contrast to [62] in which growth decreased with increasing light intensity
That growth was far better in high light (8000 lux) as compared to low light (2000 lux), and second, the elevated values of pH in high light throughout the exponential phase and its decrease as the culture advanced in maturation
Summary
As microalgae have established a foothold in our civilization in terms of an effective source of products for various uses, the quest for novel species suitable for culture or the improvement of existing culture techniques are both welcomed. Nowadays we are at the start of the adventure of delving in algal culture, and new challenges emerge as to how we can extract the most benefits microalgae can offer. In order to focus on target species that offer ease of culture and valuable products, the first is of paramount importance. What is the benefit if the tested species is cumbersome in its biomass production? Notwithstanding the already-existing large catalogue of cultured species of microalgae, e.g., [1,2], much remains to be improved, both in the existing methods and (most importantly) the examination of new candidate species that have not yet been trial-cultured
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