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Adaptation of Ulva lactuca in low-salinity and high-nutrient water environment and its synergistic microbial effect on inorganic nitrogen removal

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Abstract

Excess inorganic nitrogen in offshore estuarine areas can adversely affect coastal water quality. To explore the bioremediation potential of Ulva lactuca in low-salinity and high-nutrient water, the dissolved inorganic nitrogen (DIN) removal under different low salinities (0, 0.5, 1.0, 1.5, 2.0% NaCl) and high nutrients was studied. Static culture experiments exhibited a maximum DIN removal efficiency of 73.74% with U. lactuca in the 1.0% salinity system. The differences in DIN removal efficiency at 1.0, 1.5 and 2.0% NaCl salinity were not significant (p > 0.05 and could reach above 65%. High-throughput sequencing, scanning electron microscopy (SEM) and excitation emission matrix (EEM) analysis demonstrated that the diversity of microorganisms decreased with increasing salinity with Proteobacteria and Bacteroidota the main phyla, revealing the synergistic effect of U. lactuca and microbes. Response surface curves showed that the conditions affecting DIN removal efficiency from high to low were salinity, density, and C/N ratio. By simulating the fluctuation of salinity and water level in the offshore estuarine environment, the efficient DIN removal was more than 60% and dissolved oxygen (DO) concentration was about 8 mg L−1 with U. lactuca at salinity above 1.0% NaCl. In conclusion, this study explored the DIN removal pattern of U. lactuca in different low-salinity and high-nutrient water environments, which is of great importance for the ecological restoration of estuarine and coastal environments.

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Data availability

The datasets generated during and/or analyzed during the current study are available in the Figshare repository. https://doi.org/10.6084/m9.figshare.24123648.

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Funding

This study was supported by the Guangdong Special Support Program Project (No. 2021JC060580), and the Foshan Science and Technology Innovation Project of Guangdong Province (No. 2130218003140).

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. College of Environment and Energy, South China University of Technology, Guangzhou, 510006, China

    Jinxin Chen, Changzheng Wu, Jinquan Wan, Yan Wang, Xuejian Wang & Zhangqing Bi

  2. Guangdong Plant Fiber High-Valued Cleaning Utilization Engineering Technology Research Center, Guangzhou, 510006, China

    Jinquan Wan & Yan Wang

  3. Guangdong Shunkong Zihua Technology Company Limited, Foshan, 528313, China

    Bin Zhu

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  1. Jinxin Chen
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  2. Changzheng Wu
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  3. Jinquan Wan
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  4. Yan Wang
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Contributions

Jinxin Chen: Experimental conception and completion, Data analysis and interpretation, Writing – original draft. Changzheng Wu: Supervision, Funding support, Writing – review & editing. Jinquan Wan: Supervision, Methodology, Final approval, Writing – review & editing. Yan Wang: Critical revision, Writing – review & editing. Bin Zhu: Formal analysis, Writing – review & editing. Xuejian Wang: Investigation. Zhangqing Bi: Investigation.

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Correspondence to Jinquan Wan.

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Chen, J., Wu, C., Wan, J. et al. Adaptation of Ulva lactuca in low-salinity and high-nutrient water environment and its synergistic microbial effect on inorganic nitrogen removal. J Appl Phycol 36, 513–525 (2024). https://doi.org/10.1007/s10811-023-03121-w

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