The performance of spray-irrigated Ulva lactuca (Ulvophyceae, Chlorophyta) as a crop and as a biofilter of fishpond effluents
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Phycological Society of America
Abstract
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The seaweed Ulva lactuca L. was spray cultured by
mariculture effluents in a mattress-like layer, held in
air on slanted boards by plastic netting. Air-agitated
seaweed suspension tanks were the reference.
Growth rate, yield, and ammonia-N removal rate were
11.8% Æ d)1, 171 g fresh weight (fwt) Æ m)2 Æ d)1, and
5 g N Æ m)2 Æ d)1, respectively, by the spray-cultured
U. lactuca, and 16.9% Æ d)1, 283 g fwt Æ m)2 Æ d)1, and
7 g N Æ m)2 Æ d)1, respectively, by the tank U. lactuca.
Biomass protein content was similar in both treatments.
Dissolved oxygen in the fishpond effluent
water was raised by >3 mg Æ L)1 and pH by up to half
a unit, upon passage through both culture systems.
The data suggest that spray-irrigation culture of
U. lactuca in this simple green-mattress-like system
supplies the seaweed all it needs to grow and biofilter
at rates close to those in standard air-agitated tank
culture.
Keywords
biofilter, macroalgae, seaweed culture technology, seaweed production cost, spray culture