Full Text Available

Note: Clicking the button above will open the full text document at the original institutional repository in a new window.

Nitrogen environment, ecophysiology and growth of Gracilaria gracilus in Saldanha Bay, South Africa

Bibliography: pages 132-157.

Saved in:
Bibliographic Details
Main Author: Smit, Albertus Jacobus
Other Authors: Bolton, John J
Format: Thesis
Language:English
Published: Department of Biological Sciences 2016
Subjects:
Tags: Add Tag
No Tags, Be the first to tag this record!
_version_ 1867613338929725440
access_status_str Open Access
author Smit, Albertus Jacobus
author2 Bolton, John J
author_browse Bolton, John J
Smit, Albertus Jacobus
author_facet Bolton, John J
Smit, Albertus Jacobus
author_sort Smit, Albertus Jacobus
collection Thesis
description Bibliography: pages 132-157.
format Thesis
id oai:open.uct.ac.za:11427/17362
institution University of Cape Town (South Africa)
language eng
last_indexed 2026-06-10T12:34:33.896Z
license_str Not specified — see source repository
provenance_str_mv Harvested via OAI-PMH from UCTD — University of Cape Town Open Access Repository
publishDate 2016
publishDateRange 2016
publishDateSort 2016
publisher Department of Biological Sciences
publisherStr Department of Biological Sciences
record_format dspace
source_str UCTD — University of Cape Town Open Access Repository
spelling oai:open.uct.ac.za:11427/17362 Nitrogen environment, ecophysiology and growth of Gracilaria gracilus in Saldanha Bay, South Africa Smit, Albertus Jacobus Bolton, John J Anderson, Robert J Botany Bibliography: pages 132-157. The growth of Gracilaria gracilis (Stackhouse) Steentoft, Irvine et Farnham was examined by studying the effect of organismic determinants such as thallus length, position along the thallus and branching in a series of in situ and laboratory-based experiments. Knowledge of these factors is essential in order to maximise production from suspended seaweed rafts seeded with vegetative G. gracilis fragments. Seeding netlons with freshly collected material provided up to 30 % higher relative growth rates than seaweed maintained on the netlons for three successive months. Initial seedstock length greatly affected growth rate and yield such that 30 cm thalli fragments resulted in growth rates 14 % higher than for 10 cm fragments. This difference is suggested to be due to higher contribution of growth by lateral branches to overall biomass. Comparisons of the growth of apical and basal fragments suggested that growth takes place over the entire length of the thallus but that the apex contributes more to overall elongation than does the proximal part. The removal of apical meristems resulted in an enhanced branching frequency with production of four times as many branches as intact fragments. Evidence is also provided for severe morphological differentiation following long periods of rapid growth. These thalli have very high frequency of branching, are hollow due to the disintegration of medullary cells and are considered to be completely senescent. 2016-02-29T12:06:00Z 2016-02-29T12:06:00Z 1998 Doctoral Thesis Doctoral PhD http://hdl.handle.net/11427/17362 eng application/pdf Department of Biological Sciences Faculty of Science University of Cape Town
spellingShingle Botany
Smit, Albertus Jacobus
Nitrogen environment, ecophysiology and growth of Gracilaria gracilus in Saldanha Bay, South Africa
thesis_degree_str Doctoral
title Nitrogen environment, ecophysiology and growth of Gracilaria gracilus in Saldanha Bay, South Africa
title_full Nitrogen environment, ecophysiology and growth of Gracilaria gracilus in Saldanha Bay, South Africa
title_fullStr Nitrogen environment, ecophysiology and growth of Gracilaria gracilus in Saldanha Bay, South Africa
title_full_unstemmed Nitrogen environment, ecophysiology and growth of Gracilaria gracilus in Saldanha Bay, South Africa
title_short Nitrogen environment, ecophysiology and growth of Gracilaria gracilus in Saldanha Bay, South Africa
title_sort nitrogen environment ecophysiology and growth of gracilaria gracilus in saldanha bay south africa
topic Botany
url http://hdl.handle.net/11427/17362
work_keys_str_mv AT smitalbertusjacobus nitrogenenvironmentecophysiologyandgrowthofgracilariagracilusinsaldanhabaysouthafrica