Impact of light quality on a native Louisiana / sp. co-culture

Authors

Jonathan Z. Barnett, Department of Civil and Environmental Engineering Louisiana State University Baton Rouge LA USA.
Jacob Foy, Department of Civil and Environmental Engineering, Louisiana State University, Baton Rouge, LA 70803, United States.
Zimeng Wang, Department of Civil and Environmental Engineering, Louisiana State University, Baton Rouge, LA 70803, United States.
John Pardue, Department of Civil and Environmental Engineering, Louisiana State University, Baton Rouge, LA 70803, United States.
Hongliang Zhang, Department of Civil and Environmental Engineering, Louisiana State University, Baton Rouge, LA 70803, United States; Jiangsu Key Laboratory of Atmospheric Environment Monitoring and Pollution Control, Jiangsu Engineering Technology Research Center of Environmental Cleaning Materials, Collaborative Innovation Center of Atmospheric Environment and Equipment Technology, School of Environmental Science and Engineering, Nanjing University of Information Science & Technology, 219 Ningliu Road, Nanjing 210044, China. Electronic address: hlzhang@lsu.edu.

Document Type

Article

Publication Date

6-1-2017

Abstract

Light effect on cultures of microalgae has been studied mainly on single species cultures. Cyanobacteria have photosynthetic pigments that can capture photons of wavelengths not available to chlorophylls. A native Louisiana microalgae () and cyanobacteria ( sp.) co-culture was used to study the effects of light quality (blue-467 nm, green-522 nm, red-640 nm and white-narrow peak at 450 nm and a broad range with a peak at 550 nm) at two irradiance levels (80 and 400 μmol m s) on the growth, species composition, biomass productivity, lipid content and chlorophyll-a production. The co-culture shifted from a microalgae dominant culture to a cyanobacteria culture at 80 μmol m s. The highest growth for the cyanobacteria was observed at 80 μmol μmol m s and for the microalgae at 400 μmol m s. Red light at 400 μmol m s had the highest growth rate (0.41 d), biomass (913 mg L) and biomass productivity (95 mg L d). Lipid content was similar between all light colors. Green light had the highest chlorophyll-a content (1649 μg/L). These results can be used to control the species composition of mixed cultures while maintaining their productivity.

Publication Source (Journal or Book title)

Engineering in life sciences

First Page

678

Last Page

685

Recommended Citation

Barnett, J. Z., Foy, J., Wang, Z., Pardue, J., & Zhang, H. (2017). Impact of light quality on a native Louisiana / sp. co-culture. Engineering in life sciences, 17 (6), 678-685. https://doi.org/10.1002/elsc.201600013