ISSN:
1365-2109
Source:
Blackwell Publishing Journal Backfiles 1879-2005
Topics:
Agriculture, Forestry, Horticulture, Fishery, Domestic Science, Nutrition
Notes:
Cultivation of the macroalga Hypnea musciformis (Wulfen) Lamouroux was conducted from April 1987 to January 1988 at Praia do Forte (State of Bahia, Brazil), utilizing floating racks, Biomass, reproductive state, carrageenan yield and viscosity of algae artificially grown in situ were compared with those from natural populations. Temperature, salinity, pH, dissolved oxygen, organic and inorganic suspended matter and phosphate in surface waters were similar in all experimental phases. Algae growing on the racks exhibited significantly higher daily biomass increase (0·94-9·69g/m2day dw) than plants from natural reefs (1·39-1·74g/m2/day dw). Cultivated algae presented a dominance of tetrasporic stages, while algae from the reefs had a high occurrence of vegetative stages. Both cultivated and natural plants showed higher numbers of cystocarpic specimens during the summer. Carrageenan yield of cultivated plants was significantly higher than those growing under natural conditions only during summer-time experiments, presenting values of 3972% and 38-28% for experiments and a range of 22·7-34·88% for the reef plants. However, carrageenan viscosity of cultivated algae was always higher (40·33 ± 4·62 centipoise) and less variable than that found for the reef growing algae (35·71 ± 19·92 centipoise).
Type of Medium:
Electronic Resource
URL:
http://dx.doi.org/10.1111/j.1365-2109.1992.tb00788.x
Permalink