Nutrient uptake and lipid yield in diverse microalgal communities grown in wastewater

Stockenreiter, Maria; Haupt, Florian; Seppälä, Jukka; Tamminen, Timo; Spilling, Kristian

doi:10.1016/j.algal.2016.02.013

Cited by 44 publications

(19 citation statements)

References 31 publications

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“…This finding is a contrast to the predominantly positive effects of species richness observed in biodiversity‐function experiments (Cardinale et al., ; Hooper et al., ) and in several experiments performed in the context of algal biofuels (Shurin et al., ; Stockenreiter et al., , ). This contradiction could be due the limited taxonomic diversity and functional variation used in our experiment; previous studies that reported positive effects of species richness on the production of biomass or biovolume included algae from a greater variety of taxonomic groups (e.g., diatoms, cyanobacteria, and chrysophytes; Shurin et al., ; Stockenreiter et al., ). Further experiments will be needed to determine whether our findings are specific to the species pool that we used or are representative of the culture conditions used in our study.…”

Section: Discussionsupporting

confidence: 88%

“…In both the present experiment and the laboratory mesocosms, the 2‐species polycultures AF and BF produced more biomass than the most diverse polyculture, but polycultures collectively underperformed relative to the best species. This finding is a contrast to the predominantly positive effects of species richness observed in biodiversity‐function experiments (Cardinale et al., ; Hooper et al., ) and in several experiments performed in the context of algal biofuels (Shurin et al., ; Stockenreiter et al., , ). This contradiction could be due the limited taxonomic diversity and functional variation used in our experiment; previous studies that reported positive effects of species richness on the production of biomass or biovolume included algae from a greater variety of taxonomic groups (e.g., diatoms, cyanobacteria, and chrysophytes; Shurin et al., ; Stockenreiter et al., ).…”

Section: Discussioncontrasting

confidence: 61%

“…The benefits of multifunctionality become more even important when we consider other aspects of the biofuel production lifecycle that were not examined in our present study. Specifically, other work has shown that biodiversity can improve nutrient‐use efficiency (Godwin et al., ; Shurin, Mandal, & Abbott, ), nutrient recycling (Godwin et al., ), lipid content (Stockenreiter et al., ), and biocrude characteristics (Hietala et al., ) in algal biofuel systems. Each of these aspects of multifunctionality is essential for algae‐based biofuels to be both economically feasible and sustainable.…”

Section: Discussionmentioning

confidence: 99%

“…To date, there have been few tests of the hypothesis that biodiversity can improve the cultivation of algal feedstocks, and nearly all have been constrained to laboratory‐scale experiments. The few laboratory experiments that have tested this hypothesis have shown that, compared to the average monoculture, diverse cultures of algae may (Liu, ; Shurin et al., ; Stockenreiter, Haupt, Seppälä, Tamminen, & Spilling, ; Stockenreiter et al., ) or may not (Narwani, Lashaway, Hietala, Savage, & Cardinale, ) exhibit higher total cell biovolume or lipid content, but do exhibit more stable production through time (Narwani et al., ). Although laboratory experiments suggest that biodiversity could improve multifunctionality in algal biofuel feedstock cultivation, it is unknown whether those findings are applicable to conditions in the field where conditions are often less favorable.…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

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Biodiversity improves the ecological design of sustainable biofuel systems

et al. 2018

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For algal biofuels to become a commercially viable and sustainable means of decreasing greenhouse gas emissions, growers are going to need to design feedstocks that achieve at least three characteristics simultaneously as follows: attain high yields; produce high quality biomass; and remain stable through time. These three qualities have proven difficult to achieve simultaneously under the ideal conditions of the laboratory, much less under field conditions (e.g., outdoor culture ponds) where feedstocks are exposed to highly variable conditions and the crop is vulnerable to invasive species, disease, and grazers. Here, we show that principles from ecology can be used to improve the design of feedstocks and to optimize their potential for "multifunctionality." We performed a replicated experiment to test these predictions under outdoor conditions. Using 80 ponds of 1,100 L each, we tested the hypotheses that polycultures would outperform monocultures in terms of the following functions: biomass production, yield of biocrude from biomass, temporal stability, resisting population crashes, and resisting invasions by unwanted species. Overall, species richness improved stability, biocrude yield, and resistance to invasion. While this suggests that polycultures could outperform monocultures on average, invasion resistance was the only function where polycultures outperformed the best single species in the experiment. Due to tradeoffs among different functions that we measured, no species or polyculture was able to maximize all functions simultaneously. However, diversity did enhance the potential for multifunctionality-the most diverse polyculture performed more functions at higher levels than could any of the monocultures. These results are a key finding for ecological design of sustainable biofuel systems because they show that while a monoculture may be the optimal choice for maximizing short-term biomass production, polycultures can offer a more stable crop of the desired species over longer periods of time.

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Section: Discussionsupporting

confidence: 88%

Section: Discussioncontrasting

confidence: 61%

Section: Discussionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

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Biodiversity improves the ecological design of sustainable biofuel systems

et al. 2018

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“…The recycled nutrients stimulate the growth of benthic microalgal communities (e.g. Uthicke & Klumpp, 1998;Uthicke, 2001a), which absorb nutrients and produce O 2 through photosynthesis (Stockenreiter et al, 2016). Bioturbation increases advective flow into and within the sediment directly through burying, burrowing, and bio-irrigation (Meysman, Middleburg & Hiep, 2006), and indirectly as it increases bed sediment complexity (bioroughness).…”

Section: Sediment Turnovermentioning

confidence: 99%

Peer Review #2 of "Effects of sandfish (Holothuria scabra) removal on shallow-water sediments in Fiji (v0.1)"

2018

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Sea cucumbers play an important role in the recycling and remineralization of organic matter (OM) in reef sands through feeding, excretion, and bioturbation processes. Growing demand from Asian markets has driven the overexploitation of these animals globally. The implications of sea cucumber fisheries for shallow coastal ecosystems and their management remain poorly understood. To address this knowledge gap, the current study manipulated densities of Holothuria scabra within enclosures on a reef flat in Fiji, between August 2015 and February 2016, to study the effects of sea cucumber removal on sedimentary function as a biocatalytic filter system. Three treatments were investigated: (i) high (350 g m-2 wet weight; ca. 15 individuals); (ii) natural (60 g m-2 (ca. 3 individuals)); and (iii) exclusion (0 g m-2). Quantity of sediment reworked through ingestion by H. scabra, grain size distribution, O 2 penetration depth, and sedimentary oxygen consumption (SOC) were quantified within each treatment. Findings revealed that the natural population at the study site can rework ca. 10590 kg dry sediment 1000 m-2 year-1 ; more than twice the turnover recorded for H. atra and Stichopus chloronotus. There was a shift towards finer fraction grains in the high treatment. In the exclusion treatment, the O 2 penetration depth decreased by 63% following a 6ºC increase in water temperature over the course of two months, while in the high treatment no such change was observed. SOC rates increased ca. twofold in the exclusion treatment within the first month, and were consistently higher than in the high treatment. These results suggest that the removal of sea cucumbers can reduce the capacity of sediments to buffer OM pulses, impeding the function and productivity of shallow coastal ecosystems.

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