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A preliminary study of Gelidium capense in culture

Some preliminary investigations of the effects of temperature, light intensity, salinity and to a lesser extent, water movement, were performed under controlled laboratory culture conditions on the subtidal red alga Gelidium capense, with regards to its potential for aquaculture for its use in the a...

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Main Author: Bentley, Joanne
Other Authors: Bolton, John J
Format: Thesis
Language:English
Published: Department of Biological Sciences 2017
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access_status_str Open Access
author Bentley, Joanne
author2 Bolton, John J
author_browse Bentley, Joanne
Bolton, John J
author_facet Bolton, John J
Bentley, Joanne
author_sort Bentley, Joanne
collection Thesis
description Some preliminary investigations of the effects of temperature, light intensity, salinity and to a lesser extent, water movement, were performed under controlled laboratory culture conditions on the subtidal red alga Gelidium capense, with regards to its potential for aquaculture for its use in the agar and paper-making industries. Agar was also extracted from a wild population and its concentration measured. Four temperature conditions {l0°C, 15°C, 20°c and 25°C) and three salinities (35ppt, 18ppt and 9ppt) were tested as well as four irradiances (120-140 μmol photons m⁻²s⁻¹ , 80-100 μmol photons m⁻²s⁻¹, 60-70 μmol photons m⁻²s⁻¹ and 30-50 μmol photons m⁻²s⁻¹). Water movement was achieved either through aeration or using a flask shaker. A combination of full salinity {35ppt) and 15°C temperature with a light intensity of 80- 100 μmol photons m⁻²s⁻¹ yielded the most optimal growth rates (5 .07% day⁻¹) while poor growth rates (- 1.61% day⁻¹) were observed for the 18ppt and 9ppt salinities and the lowest light intensities. Interestingly, G. capense did not thrive at 20°c or 25°C and instead discoloured rapidly, showed necrosis within a few days, which is in contrast to the findings of most studies focussed on other species of Gelidium under similar conditions. Slow growth rates were achieved at 10°c. The mean agar yield measured ten percent (9.66% ± 1.81) of dry algal weight which is less than a third of the agar yields of some other species of Gelidium and Graci/aria. This suggests that this species may not be as valuable as other Gelidium species in terms of its agar content. It does, however, have high rhizine content and this may lend it to be beneficial in the papermaking industry.
format Thesis
id oai:open.uct.ac.za:11427/24853
institution University of Cape Town (South Africa)
language eng
last_indexed 2026-06-10T12:33:10.259Z
license_str Not specified — see source repository
provenance_str_mv Harvested via OAI-PMH from UCTD — University of Cape Town Open Access Repository
publishDate 2017
publishDateRange 2017
publishDateSort 2017
publisher Department of Biological Sciences
publisherStr Department of Biological Sciences
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source_str UCTD — University of Cape Town Open Access Repository
spelling oai:open.uct.ac.za:11427/24853 A preliminary study of Gelidium capense in culture Bentley, Joanne Bolton, John J Botany Phycology Some preliminary investigations of the effects of temperature, light intensity, salinity and to a lesser extent, water movement, were performed under controlled laboratory culture conditions on the subtidal red alga Gelidium capense, with regards to its potential for aquaculture for its use in the agar and paper-making industries. Agar was also extracted from a wild population and its concentration measured. Four temperature conditions {l0°C, 15°C, 20°c and 25°C) and three salinities (35ppt, 18ppt and 9ppt) were tested as well as four irradiances (120-140 μmol photons m⁻²s⁻¹ , 80-100 μmol photons m⁻²s⁻¹, 60-70 μmol photons m⁻²s⁻¹ and 30-50 μmol photons m⁻²s⁻¹). Water movement was achieved either through aeration or using a flask shaker. A combination of full salinity {35ppt) and 15°C temperature with a light intensity of 80- 100 μmol photons m⁻²s⁻¹ yielded the most optimal growth rates (5 .07% day⁻¹) while poor growth rates (- 1.61% day⁻¹) were observed for the 18ppt and 9ppt salinities and the lowest light intensities. Interestingly, G. capense did not thrive at 20°c or 25°C and instead discoloured rapidly, showed necrosis within a few days, which is in contrast to the findings of most studies focussed on other species of Gelidium under similar conditions. Slow growth rates were achieved at 10°c. The mean agar yield measured ten percent (9.66% ± 1.81) of dry algal weight which is less than a third of the agar yields of some other species of Gelidium and Graci/aria. This suggests that this species may not be as valuable as other Gelidium species in terms of its agar content. It does, however, have high rhizine content and this may lend it to be beneficial in the papermaking industry. 2017-08-08T06:49:02Z 2017-08-08T06:49:02Z 2010 Bachelor Thesis Honours BSc (Hons.) http://hdl.handle.net/11427/24853 eng application/pdf Department of Biological Sciences Faculty of Science University of Cape Town
spellingShingle Botany
Phycology
Bentley, Joanne
A preliminary study of Gelidium capense in culture
thesis_degree_str Bachelor's / Honours
title A preliminary study of Gelidium capense in culture
title_full A preliminary study of Gelidium capense in culture
title_fullStr A preliminary study of Gelidium capense in culture
title_full_unstemmed A preliminary study of Gelidium capense in culture
title_short A preliminary study of Gelidium capense in culture
title_sort preliminary study of gelidium capense in culture
topic Botany
Phycology
url http://hdl.handle.net/11427/24853
work_keys_str_mv AT bentleyjoanne apreliminarystudyofgelidiumcapenseinculture
AT bentleyjoanne preliminarystudyofgelidiumcapenseinculture