Seaweed nutrient physiology: application of concepts to aquaculture and bioremediation

Abstract

Inorganic carbon, nitrogen and phosphorus are the main elements required by seaweeds for photosynthesis and growth. This review focusses mainly on nitrogen, but the roles of carbon and phosphorus, which may interactively affect seaweed physiological processes, are also explored. Fundamental concepts such as limiting nutrients, sources, and ratios, mechanisms of nutrient uptake, nutrient assimilation and storage, patterns of uptake and preferences for different nitrogen sources are discussed. The roles of abiotic (water motion, light, temperature, salinity and desiccation) and biotic (life stages and age class) factors in nutrient (nitrogen, phosphorous, carbon) uptake are also reviewed. Understanding speciesspecific nitrogen physiologies and nitrogen source preferences will enable polyculture of different seaweed species and the use of seaweeds as biofilters in integrated multitrophic aquaculture systems.

A Comprehensive Review of the Nutraceutical and Therapeutic Applications of Red Seaweeds (Rhodophyta)

“…(collected in Japan) it was only 16 µg/g dw. The worldwide dosage intake recommendation for iodine is the 0.15 mg/day [14,178,179].…”

Seaweed’s Bioactive Candidate Compounds to Food Industry and Global Food Security

“…In this offshore cultivation technique, there is no need to use additional nutrients, unlike agriculture that is highly based on irrigated crops, which come at a great cost to the environment and collectively leave an enormous carbon footprint and the eutrophication of aquatic systems [ 5 , 6 , 7 , 8 , 9 ]. Moreover, at this point, seaweeds can edge these problems, because they are marine carbon fixators and have the potential to help in the bioremediation of eutrophic waters [ 10 , 11 , 12 , 13 ].…”

“…This control is more effective in land-based aquaculture but there has been recent investigations into offshore farms to see if it is possible to extrapolate the growth and nutritional values of seaweeds. The variation of the nutritional values is mainly dependent on the species cultivated, seasons, geography/location, seawater quality (nutrients available), and the influence of other environmental stress factors during growth (such as temperature, pH, conductivity, salinity, UV radiation, light, and herbivory) [ 13 , 30 , 31 , 32 , 33 , 34 , 35 , 36 , 37 , 38 ].…”

Simulating the Trajectory and Biomass Growth of Free-Floating Macroalgal Cultivation Platforms along the U.S. West Coast

“…Laboratory/field experiments should be carried out for targeted macroalgal species to derive accurate light limiting functions. The temperature limiting function for the growth rate is based on the same equation in [18] with an optimal temperature range of 3-15 • C and a tolerance temperature range of 0-20 • C. In marine environment, nitrogen is regarded as the most important limiting factor for macroalgal growth [45]. Thus, the nutrient limiting function can be simplified to only consider nitrogen limitation effect.…”