The performance and chemical composition of spray-irrigated seaweed Ulva lactuca as a crop and as a biofilter of fishpond effluents1 Flower

E. Msuya2 and Amir Neori3

2

Institute of Marine Sciences, University of Dar es Salaam, P.O. Box 668, Zanzibar, Tanzania Israel Oceanographic and Limnological Research, National Centre for Mariculture,

P.O. Box 1212, Eilat 88112, Israel

2

Corresponding author,

Tel: +255 24 223074, +255 786 629374, Fax: +255 24 2233050, E-mail: msuya@ims.udsm.ac.tz, flowereze@yahoo.com

Abstract The seaweed Ulva lactuca was cultured exposed to air and spray-irrigated by seawater from an intensive Gilthead Seabream fishpond. The seaweed was held over slanted plywood boards covered with plastic netting material. Seaweed growth and biofiltration performance were compared with submerged air-agitated seaweed tanks. Ammonia-N removal rate by the spray-irrigated U. lactuca was 5 g N m-2 d-1 statistically not different from 7 g N m-2 d-1 in the U. lactuca tanks. Protein content of the seaweed on dry weight basis was also similar in the spray irrigated (27%) and the tanks (25%). Dissolved oxygen in the fishpond effluent water was raised by over 3 mg L-1 and pH by up to half a unit, upon passage through both spray irrigated and tank U. lactuca systems. Seaweed yield of the spray-irrigated seaweeds was 171 g fresh weight m-2 d-1, 60% of the yield in the tanks, while specific growth rate of the seaweed in the spray-irrigated seaweeds (12% d-1) was 70% of the value in the air-agitated tanks. The data suggest that U. lactuca can grow and perform well as a practical biofilter of commercial mariculture pond effluents in this simple spray-irrigated seaweeds system, which is easily scalable and allows significant cost savings for land preparation, system construction, and operation.
Full publication: Msuya, F. E. and Neori, A. (2010), THE PERFORMANCE OF SPRAYIRRIGATED ULVA LACTUCA (ULVOPHYCEAE, CHLOROPHYTA) AS A CROP AND AS A BIOFILTER OF FISHPOND EFFLUENTS. Journal of Phycology, 46: 813817. doi: 10.1111/j.1529-8817.2010.00843.x