<p>The continuous discharge of sewage with significant nutrient loads into coastal waters, is causing a dramatic deterioration of the environment due to eutrophication processes. Actually, some practices are being taken into account in aquaculture as the integration of seaweed in fish-farming to control the level of nutrients generated. In order to study the capability of macroalgae for removing nutrients, six species of the Mediterranean Coast of Southern Europe (Corallina elongata, Ulva olivascens, Halopteris scoparia, Cystoseira mediterranea, Laurencia pinnatifida and Enteromorpha sp.) were studied in laboratory experiments. The specimens were incubated in different external nutrient load conditions to determine the uptake rate of nitrate and phosphate, and the internal concentrations of these species were analysed to obtain the concentration factor for both nutrients. </p><p> </p><p>The results obtained show that these algae remove nutrients efficiently from the medium and the uptake rates follow saturation kinetics in normal conditions.</p><p>U.olivascens had the highest uptake rate for both nitrate and phosphate while C.elongata and H.scoparia had the highest concentration factor for nitrate and phosphate respectively. These results indicate that integration of these species in intensive fish-farming may play an increasingly important role as a nutrient-removal system, alleviating eutrophication problems due to fed aquaculture.</p>
Identifer | oai:union.ndltd.org:UPSALLA/oai:DiVA.org:hh-2183 |
Date | January 2008 |
Creators | Magno, Concepción, Iñiguez, Concepción |
Publisher | Halmstad University, School of Business and Engineering (SET), Halmstad University, School of Business and Engineering (SET), Högskolan i Halmstad/Sektionen för Ekonomi och Teknik (SET) |
Source Sets | DiVA Archive at Upsalla University |
Language | English |
Detected Language | English |
Type | Student thesis, text |
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