Effects of Light Intensity on Growth Rates of Green Algae

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Found this link from a suggestion at the popular Oil from Algae Yahoo group. This was suggested by a group member David Miller, thanks David!

"
The Effects of Light Intensity on the Growth Rates of Green Algae.
1,2,3, Constantine Sorokin4 and Robert W. Krauss

DEPARTMENT OF BOTANY, UNIVERSITY OF MARYLAND, COLLEGE PARK, MARYLAND

see the full paper @ http://tinyurl.com/g9td4, PDF version: http://www.pubmedcentral.nih.gov/picrender.fcgi?artid=541035&blobtype=pdf

David's comments:

"It graphs out the relationship between growth rate of various species with light intensity. One species in particular was very dependent on temperature, and could tolerate and use much more light at 39 degrees C vs 25...

In a nutshell then, each species had some minimum light level required
to keep them alive but not growing at all, and growth seemed
proportional to light intensity from there for "a ways' before it
leveled off and began to decline. They found species with optimal
light intensities ranging from 2.5% (chlorella vulgaris) to 14% of
full sunlight. They expressed it as 250 to 1400 ftcandles and
wikipedia lists full sun as 10000 fc."

This is quite a useful paper, folks

See also in the same forum, a related comment by Abhishek Narain (thanks Narain), to a different question though:

"
The growth profile of algae shows a proportional increase with increase in light intensity. However after a certain light intensity, the growth profile shows declination with further increase in light intensity. This value of light intensity from where the declination starts is termed to cause the phenomena of LIGHT INHIBITION, such that the growth of algae decreases due to damage in light pigments at high intensity.

What this value of light intensity shoul be, is a function of the photobioreactor design, and in particular the arrangement and kind of light source. Ideally, one should aim to avoid a light source which has large amount of that wavelength of light spectra, which are not unsed in photosynthesis, typically the Violet region and the Red region. These wavelength merely are a waste of energy. However, if source of light is the light from sun, then you save money by not wasting aftificial sources of energy.

There are a lot of photobioreactor design available in literature, but none that is good for large scale production with efficient distribution of light and carbon-dioxide and with a compact geometry.

Hope that helps.

Regards
Narain
"

Another research paper citation on "Effects of Light Intensity", this time posted by Tom Catino, thanks Tom!

"Effects of light intensity, CO2 and nitrogen supply on lipid class
composition of Dunaliella viridis
Journal Journal of Applied Phycology
Publisher Springer Netherlands
ISSN 0921-8971 (Print) 1573-5176 (Online)
Subject Biomedical and Life Sciences
Issue Volume 10, Number 2 / April, 1998
DOI 10.1023/A:100806702 2973
Pages 135-144
Online Date Monday, November 29, 2004
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Effects of light intensity, CO2 and nitrogen supply on lipid class
composition of Dunaliella viridis
Francisco J. L. Gordillo1, Madeleine Goutx2, Felix L. Figueroa1 and
F. Xavier Niell1

(1) Departamento de Ecologia. Facultad de Ciencias, Universidad de
Málaga, Campus de Teatinos s/n, 29071 Málaga, Spain
(2) Microbiologie Marine (CNRS, U.P.R. 223), Campus de Luminy, CASE
907, 13288 Marseille cedex 9, France

Abstract Lipid class composition of Dunaliella viridis Teodoresco
was analysed using thin layer chromatography coupled with flame
ionisation detection (TLC/FID technique). D. viridis was cultured
under four different photon fluence rates and in darkness, and under
two different conditions of CO2 supply (atmospheric and 1%) with and
without nitrogen sufficiency. Nine lipid classes were identified and
quantified. Total lipids per cell and acetone-mobile polar lipids
decreased with light, while the percentage of sterols and
triglycerides increased with increasing irradiance. Total
phospholipids increase was related with growth rate while
hydrocarbons, wax esters and sterol esters accumulated in darkness.
There were almost no changes in total lipids per cell because of
nitrogen limitation; however, nitrogen limitation led to higher
changes in lipid class composition under 1% CO2 than under
atmospheric CO2 levels. The main reserve lipid, triglycerides,
accumulated in high amounts under 1% CO2 and nitrogen limitation,
increasing from 1% to 22% of total lipids. The ratio sterols/acetone-
mobile polar lipids could be an index of the 'light status'
independently of nitrogen limitation, while the ratio
triglycerides/ total phospholipids could indicate any physiological
stress uncoupling C and N metabolism and affecting the growth rate.
Light - CO2 - nitrogen - lipids - thin layer chromatography - flame
ionisation - microalga - batch culture - Dunaliella viridis

This revised version was published online in June 2006 with
corrections to the Cover Date.

http://www.springerlink.com/content/t271hk066q243u54/
"

Some more links were quoted by Tom Catino & Bobby Yates Emory (Thanks Bobby)

"

That seemed like a lot of reading so I restricted it to lipids:
http://159.189.176.5/portal/server.pt?
in_hi_space=NBIISearchAS&in_hi_control=NBIISearchControl&in_hi_result
s=true&in_cb_source=-2&in_cb_source=201&in_tx_ query=algae+ LIPID&in_ su_b1=Search#

or:
http://tinyurl.com/qjqb9

and quickly found a twenty year old article that said they were
encountering naturally growing algae in a temperate climate that
were 1/3 oil:
http://159.189.176.141/xml/CSA/231/8903215.html

Maybe someone needs to take a vacation trip to Normandy Lake and
start a cultivation program like Patrick.
(I only looked at the first 15 - there are 53 total.)

database search turned up 7000+ hits for "algae" search...
http://tinyurl. com/g388o
"




Cheers
Ec


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Growing Algae Under Artificial Illumination, Lighting

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This is a theme that would have occured to most of us - why not grow algae under artificial lighting?

Well, this might not make things any simpler, or less costly...

Here's an interesting reply from a member (Donald H Locker) at the popular oil_from_algae yahoogroup:
"
More significant, I think, is the fact that the use of artificial light
will require more (much more) CO2 production than is removed by the
algae. No way to avoid it.

The energy to produce electricity comes from burning the carbon to CO2.
Less electricity is produced than fuel combusted; only about 40% of
the fuel comes out as electricity. Less light is produced than
electricity consumed. I'm not sure of the exact numbers, but 20% (for
fluorescent lamps) is what sticks in my mind. And less of the light is
used by the algae to remove CO2 from the stack gases. I'm hearing 3% to
10%. So for each ton of carbon fuel burned, we get 0.4 carbon-ton
equivalent of electricity, 0.08 carbon-ton equivalent of light and
0.0024 to 0.008 carbon-ton equivalent of algae growth.

Meaning it takes 1.008 tons of carbon fuel to remove 0.008 carbon-tons
equivalent of CO2. Major losses here. Artificial lighting, if the
light comes from carbon-based fuels is a non-starter.

The ONLY use of artificial light might be to keep the algae culture
alive. And I don't think that is necessary for any of the species I
know of.

Donald."

Oilgae Academic Edition showcases case studies on algae research efforts in respective areas such as waste water treatment, CO2 sequestration and power plants.

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Oceans, Iron & Oil - Connect the dots

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I must thank Tom Catino for sending in this rather intriguing piece of input. He sent me an article from Moss Landing Marine Laboratory studies @ California State University

To give a brief background, these researchers were conducting studies on sequestering carbon-di-oxide - that is carbon-di-oxide absorption and locking-up thus reducing that much amount of CO2 from the atmosphere. As you can understand, this is an important topic in itself, given the massive increases in CO2 in our atmosphere owing to the twin effects of increased pollution and decreased forest covers. However, what is of specific interest to us is this:

"..the scientists added iron to surface waters in two square patches, each 15 kilometers on a side, so that concentrations of this micronutrient reached about 50 parts per trillion. This concentration, though low by terrestrial standards, represented a 100-fold increase over ambient conditions, and triggered massive phytoplankton blooms at both locations. These blooms covered thousands of square kilometers, and were visible in satellite images of the area..."

The research further indicates that "...even where silicic acid levels are low, iron fertilization can result in blooms of phytoplankton such as dinoflagellates and prymneseophytes, which do not require silicon for growth yet still consume vast amounts of carbon dioxide."

This research was conducted in 2002, and there is a mention of this research in three research articles in the April 16 issue of Science, and is featured on the magazine’s cover...(citation: Kenneth H. Coale, et al. Southern ocean iron enrichment experiment: carbon cycling in high-and low-Si waters. Science. Vol. 304 #5669 (April 16, 2004)).

As I said earlier, perhaps there could be a connection between Iron, Oceans and Oil? If iron fertilisation could result in massive blooms of desired algae (this is still a question-mark, since we do not know what all species of algae respond to iron fertilisation, only a couple of them are mentioned in the article), then algae cultilvation in open seas is worth having a look at. Currently, from what I understand, using oceans for oil-bearing algal cultivation is not considered to be a feasible idea.

Your ideas are welcome, thanks again to Tom for pointing it out.

You can read the full article on Moss Landing Marine Laboratories experiments here

Useful reference web sites: Planktos

Keywords for the article: Antarctica, Iron Fertilisation, Phytoplantkon, Ice Age, Southern Ocean Iron Enrichment Experiments (SOFeX), Iron-rich dust, Silicic acid, Dinoflagellates, prymneseophytes, Scripps Institution of Oceanography

Personalities mentioned: Dr. Kenneth Coale of Moss Landing Marine Laboratories (MLML), Dr. Ken Johnson of the Monterey Bay Aquarium Research Institute (MBARI), Dr. Ken Buesseler of Woods Hole Oceanographic Institution, Dr. Jim Bishop of Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratories

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