Growth performance and bioremediation potential of Gracilaria gracilis (Steentoft, L.M. Irvine & Farnham, 1995)

ABSTRACT

The rapid development of aquaculture makes it desirable to use environment-friendly methods of purifying the wastewater effluent. Seaweed is often cultured for the dual purpose of useful algal biomass production and its bioremediation potential. This paper offers a survey on growth characters and ecological functions of the macroalgae Gracilaria gracilis (Steentoft, L.M. Irvine & Farnham, 1995), collected from Ganzirri lagoon (Messina, Italy). The results obtained provided promising data in terms of growth rates, biomass and biofiltering potential of G. gracilis. A daily growth rate (DGR) of 0.70%/g and biomass 36,05 g/m³ was obtained using tanks with lower lighting. Its biofiltration efficiency was demonstrated by the strong correlation between the algal growth parameters (Y and DGR) and the concentration decrease of dissolved nutrients. Results provided in this study indicated that G. gracilis can find application in aquaculture systems as a biofilter and that biomass produced offers a valid resource for further biotechnological applications.

KEYWORDS:

• Macroalgae cultivation
• biofilter
• wastewater treatment
• aquaculture

Acknowledgments

The authors are grateful to Sig. Giovanni Maio of Messina University for the support during sampling operations.

Disclosure statement

The authors declare that they have no known competing financial interests or personal relationships that could have appeared to influence the work reported in this paper.

Authors’ contribution

Nunziacarla Spanò writing-original draft preparation; Davide Di Paola investigation, data collection; Marco Albano formal analysis, data curation, visualization; Antonio Manganaro resource, supervision; Marilena Sanfilippo review; Claudio D’Iglio formal analysis; Gioele Capillo investigation, supervision, conceptualization, writing, review; Serena Savoca supervision, conceptualization, writing, review. All authors have read and agreed to the published version of the manuscript.

Additional information

Funding

Research activities have been carried out under the financial support obtained from the project PON INNOVAQUA (PON02_00451_3362185) from Italian Ministry of University and Research (MIUR).