Chile, located in the southeastern Pacific, possess a high richness of seaweed species, some of which have been traditionally extracted from natural beds for the production of hydrocolloids (e.g. agar, carrageenan and alginates), but still a high proportion of the biomass is being exported as dried material to processors in Asia and Europe. During the period 2006–2016, this tendency has been maintained, but has also started to show signs of changing towards a more sustainable, localized seaweed industry as new actions by the Chilean government provided subsidies to seaweed farming activities and also to investments in local valorization of the resources. This “sea change” has been further supported by an increase in the number of localized scientific and technical studies related to Chilean seaweed resources which has prepared the foundation required in order to move to more advanced stages of local seaweed farming and development of local processing.
Callophyllis variegata is a red alga that has been exported to Japan as an edible seaweed over the past few years. Available data strongly suggest that after a few years of exploitation of the C. variegata stands in southern Chile, a decline of its abundance seems to be occurring. However, there is not sufficient knowledge available to sustain harvesting strategies or to develop cultivation techniques. This study describes the C. variegata landings in the south of Chile and also provides some basic data on the biology of this species. Experiments related to the cultivation of early developmental stages, frond cultivation under controlled conditions and the regeneration capacity of the holdfast of this red alga are also presented. Spore production occurs mainly in autumn and winter and survival of carpospores decreased as the temperature increased from 8 to 12°C. Survival of tetraspores increased significantly, from 50 to 60% to over 80%, when temperature was raised from 8 to 12°C. Carpospore survival was also significantly affected by the photon flux density. This effect was mainly at 8°C, whereas at 33 mmol m -2 s -1 the survival of the spores is always low. The cultivation of apical portions of C. variegata under laboratory conditions showed that lower temperatures (8°C) significantly increased growth. Salinity and photon flux density did not have an effect on specific growth rate. Laboratory experiments demonstrated that holdfasts can regenerate fronds and that these fronds can be excised and cultivated, and are far more tolerant to environmental factors than the apical portions.
scite is a Brooklyn-based organization that helps researchers better discover and understand research articles through Smart Citations–citations that display the context of the citation and describe whether the article provides supporting or contrasting evidence. scite is used by students and researchers from around the world and is funded in part by the National Science Foundation and the National Institute on Drug Abuse of the National Institutes of Health.