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Combined Effect of Light Intensity and Nitrogen Concentration in a Medium on the Structural and Functional Characteristics of Microalgae

  • PHYTOPLANKTON, PHYTOBENTHOS, PHYTOPERIPHYTON
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Abstract

This study investigates the change in light dependences of the specific growth rate and carbon to the chlorophyll a ratio in marine diatom Phaeodactylum tricornutum on the initial nitrogen concentration in a nutrient medium. In different variants of experiment, the nitrogen content in the medium (in nitrate form) ranged from 10 to 414 μM; the light intensity varied between 14 and 1200 μE m–2 s–1. It is found that the combined effect of light intensity and the degree of nitrogen availability to cells on the studied characteristics of algae is observed under the light inhibition of growth. A decrease in the initial nitrogen concentration in the medium leads to a narrowing of the optimal range of light intensity for algae growth, an increase in the degree of a light inhibition of growth rate, and a progressive decrease in the chlorophyll content in the cells. The half-saturation constant calculated from the Monod equation increases with light intensity on a power-law relationship. The regularities of the specific growth rate and the intracellular chlorophyll a content changes depending on the nitrogen concentration in the medium, and light conditions of cultivation can be used in developing models for assessing the biomass and primary production of phytoplankton, as well as in the interpretation of data from monitoring natural waters and in biotechnology for the mass cultivation of microalgae.

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Funding

This study was conducted as a part of a topic of State Task of the Federal Research Center Institute of Biology of the Southern Seas no. 121041400077-1 “Functional, Metabolic, and Toxicological Aspects of the Occurrence of Hydrobionts and their Populations in Biotopes with Different Physicochemical Regimes.”

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  1. Kovalevsky Institute of Biology of the Southern Seas, Russian Academy of Sciences, Sevastopol, Russia

    N. Yu. Shoman & A. I. Akimov

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  1. N. Yu. Shoman
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  2. A. I. Akimov
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Correspondence to N. Yu. Shoman.

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Conflict of interest. The authors declare that they have no conflicts of interest.

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Translated by E. Kuznetsova

Abbreviation: Chl a—chlorophyll a; C/Chl a—ratio of carbon to chlorophyll a; Ninit.—initial concentration of nitrogen in culture (nutrient) medium.

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Shoman, N.Y., Akimov, A.I. Combined Effect of Light Intensity and Nitrogen Concentration in a Medium on the Structural and Functional Characteristics of Microalgae. Inland Water Biol 15, 115–121 (2022). https://doi.org/10.1134/S1995082922020110

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