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Land-based drip-irrigated culture of Ulva compressa: The effect of culture platform design and nutrient concentration on biomass production and protein content.

ABSTRACT: This work developed a laboratory prototype methodology for cost-effective, water-sparing drip-irrigation of seaweeds, as a model for larger-scale, on-land commercial units, which we envision as semi-automated, inexpensive polyethylene sheet-covered bow-framed greenhouses with sloping plastic covered floors, water-collecting sumps, and pumped recycling of culture media into overhead low-pressure drip emitters. Water droplets form on the continually wetted interior plastic surfaces of these types of greenhouses scattering incoming solar radiation to illuminate around and within the vertically-stacked culture platforms. Concentrated media formulations applied through foliar application optimize nutrient uptake by the seaweeds to improve growth and protein content of the cultured biomass. An additional attribute is that seaweed growth can be accelerated by addition of anthropogenic CO2-containing industrial flue gases piped into the head-space of the greenhouse to reuse and recycle CO2 into useful algal biomass. This demonstration tested three different drip culture platform designs (horizontal, vertical and slanted) and four increasing fertilizer media concentrations (in seawater) for growth, areal productivity, and thallus protein content of wild-collected Ulva compressa biomass, against fully-submerged controls. Cool White fluorescent lights provided 150-200 ?mol photon m-2 s-1 illumination on a 12/12 hr day/night cycle. Interactive effects we tested using a four-level single factorial randomized block framework (p<0.05). Growth rates and biomass of the drip irrigation designs were 3-9% day-1 and 5-18 g m-2 day-1 (d.w.) respectively, whereas the fully-submerged control group grew better at 8-11% per day with of 20-30 g m-2 day-1, indicating further optimization of the drip irrigation methodology is needed to improve growth and biomass production. Results demonstrated that protein content of Ulva biomass grown using the vertically-oriented drip culture platform and 2x fertilizer concentrations (42:16:36 N:P:K) was 27% d.w., approximating the similarly-fertilized control group. The drip methodology was found to significantly improve gas and nutrient mass transfer through the seaweed thalli, and overall, the labor- and-energy-saving methodology would use a calculated 20% of the seawater required for conventional on-land tank-based tumble culture.

SUBMITTER: Mendoza W

PROVIDER: S-EPMC6021086 | biostudies-literature | 2018

REPOSITORIES: biostudies-literature

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Land-based drip-irrigated culture of Ulva compressa: The effect of culture platform design and nutrient concentration on biomass production and protein content.

Mendoza Wilson W Mendola Dominick D Kim Jang J Yarish Charles C Velloze Alyssa A Mitchell B Greg BG

PloS one 20180627 6

This work developed a laboratory prototype methodology for cost-effective, water-sparing drip-irrigation of seaweeds, as a model for larger-scale, on-land commercial units, which we envision as semi-automated, inexpensive polyethylene sheet-covered bow-framed greenhouses with sloping plastic covered floors, water-collecting sumps, and pumped recycling of culture media into overhead low-pressure drip emitters. Water droplets form on the continually wetted interior plastic surfaces of these types ...[more]

PMID: 29949617

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Project description:Application of inorganic nitrogen (N) fertilizer and manure can increase nitrous oxide (N2O) emissions. We tested the hypothesis that increased N2O flux from soils amended with manure reflects a change in bacterial community structure and, specifically, an increase in the number of denitrifiers. To test this hypothesis, a field experiment was conducted in a drip-irrigated cotton field in an arid region of northwestern China. Treatments included plots that were not amended (Control), and plots amended with urea (Urea), animal manure (Manure) and a 50/50 mix of urea and manure (U+M). Manure was broadcast-incorporated into the soil before seeding while urea was split-applied with drip irrigation (fertigation) over the growing season. The addition treatments did not, as assessed by nextgen sequencing of PCR-amplicons generated from rRNA genes in soil, affect the alpha diversity of bacterial communities but did change the beta diversity. Compared to the Control, the addition of manure (U+M and Manure) significantly increased the abundance of genes associated with nitrate reduction (narG) and denitrfication (nirK and nosZ). Manure addition (U+M and Manure) did not affect the nitrifying enzyme activity (NEA) of soil but resulted in 39-59 times greater denitrifying enzyme activity (DEA). In contrast, urea application had no impact on the abundances of nitrifier and denitrifier genes, DEA and NEA; likely due to a limitation of C availability. DEA was highly correlated (r = 0.70-0.84, P < 0.01) with the abundance of genes narG, nirK and nosZ. An increase in the abundance of these functional genes was further correlated with soil NO3 -, dissolved organic carbon, total C, and total N concentrations, and soil C:N ratio. These results demonstrated a positive relationship between the abundances of denitrifying functional genes (narG, nirK and nosZ) and denitrification potential, suggesting that manure application increased N2O emission by increasing denitrification and the population of bacteria that mediated that process.

Project description:Changes in land use may lead to increased soil nutrient levels in many ecosystems (e.g. due to intensification of agricultural fertilizer use). Plant species differ widely in their response to differences in soil nutrients, and for savannas it is uncertain how this nutrient enrichment will affect plant community dynamics. We set up a large controlled short-term experiment in a semi-arid savanna to test how water supply (even water supply vs. natural rainfall) and nutrient availability (no fertilisation vs. fertilisation) affects seedlings' above-ground biomass production and leaf-nutrient concentrations (N, P and K) of broad-leafed and fine-leafed tree species. Contrary to expectations, neither changes in water supply nor changes in soil nutrient level affected biomass production of the studied species. By contrast, leaf-nutrient concentration did change significantly. Under regular water supply, soil nutrient addition increased the leaf phosphorus concentration of both fine-leafed and broad-leafed species. However, under uneven water supply, leaf nitrogen and phosphorus concentration declined with soil nutrient supply, this effect being more accentuated in broad-leafed species. Leaf potassium concentration of broad-leafed species was lower when growing under constant water supply, especially when no NPK fertilizer was applied. We found that changes in environmental factors can affect leaf quality, indicating a potential interactive effect between land-use changes and environmental changes on savanna vegetation: under more uneven rainfall patterns within the growing season, leaf quality of tree seedlings for a number of species can change as a response to changes in nutrient levels, even if overall plant biomass does not change. Such changes might affect herbivore pressure on trees and thus savanna plant community dynamics. Although longer term experiments would be essential to test such potential effects of eutrophication via changes in leaf nutrient concentration, our findings provide important insights that can help guide management plans that aim to preserve savanna biodiversity.

Project description:Introduction Approximately 50% of irrigation water is saved during drip-irrigation of rice, which has tremendous potential for water-saving agriculture, particularly in areas where water resources are scarce. However, the grain yield and quality of drip-irrigated rice are adversely affected. Methods In this study, we investigated the effects of different irrigation strategies on the grain yield and quality of drip-irrigated rice using field experiments. Four irrigation treatments were studied: whole growing season flooding (FI), whole growing season normal drip irrigation (DI, soil relative moisture (RSM) was maintained in the range of 90-100%), pre-anthesis drip irrigation and post-anthesis water stress (SAF, the RSM was maintained in the range of 80-90% after anthesis), pre-anthesis drip irrigation, and post-anthesis flooding (FAF). Results The results showed that grain yield, harvest index, seed setting rate and 1000 grain weight in DI and SAF were significantly lower than in FI and FAF. These parameters were not significantly different between FI and FAF but were significantly greater in DI than in SAF. Compared with FI and FAF, the source capacity, source activity time, and sink activity of DI and SAF decreased, and the sink-source difference increased. The sink-source difference had a significant negative correlation with rice yield and 1000 grain weight. The activities of ADP-glucose pyrophosphorylase, starch branching enzyme, and amylopectin content in grains in the middle panicles of FAF were significantly higher than those of DI and SAF. SAF resulted in increased amylose/amylopectin ratio and total protein content in grains but decreased proportion of glutenin in total protein. Irrigation after anthesis of drip-irrigated rice narrowed the difference between sink sources in rice plants, increased the grain yield and harvest index by 29.2% and 11%, respectively, compared to DI, increased water productivity by 19% compared to FI, and improved the grain quality of drip-irrigated rice. Discussion This study highlights that post-anthesis sufficient irrigation of drip-irrigated rice plays a positive role in maintaining the source-sink balance. This study serves as a foundation for the development of more effective rice farming methods that conserve water, while increasing the grain yield and quality of drip-irrigated rice.

Dataset Information

Land-based drip-irrigated culture of Ulva compressa: The effect of culture platform design and nutrient concentration on biomass production and protein content.

Publications

Land-based drip-irrigated culture of Ulva compressa: The effect of culture platform design and nutrient concentration on biomass production and protein content.

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