What this work is about, in plain words
Can the marine diatom Phaeodactylum tricornutum be grown on artificial rather than real seawater? The authors tested this in the laboratory and in an open pond under sunlight in Crimea.
Phaeodactylum tricornutum is a marine diatom valued for its fast growth and useful substances: fatty acids and the pigment fucoxanthin. It needs seawater to grow, but delivering seawater to a production site is not always convenient, and cheap substitutes are not suitable for every product. The authors tested how the alga grows on a medium made with artificial seawater.
The culture was grown in the laboratory under artificial light and outdoors in Crimea, in a pond under natural light.
According to the authors, in the laboratory the culture reached 3.86 g of biomass per liter with a productivity of 0.8 g per liter per day. In the outdoor pond under natural light, productivity reached 6 g per square meter per day. The authors believe these results can form the basis of a cultivation technology using artificial seawater.
The work matters for anyone planning to grow marine algae far from the sea: it shows that the culture grows well without natural seawater.
Limitations. The experiments were carried out in the laboratory and in one open pond in Crimea; in a different climate and light, the figures may differ. The results were obtained by the authors of the article and do not describe Laboratory 17 batches.