title: An exploration of the relationships between microalgae biomass growth and related environmental variables.
abstract: Algal community plays critical roles as the primary producer and as a major biotic component in the nutrient/energy cycle in aquatic ecosystems. The potential of fresh water algal biomass to mitigate global problems of food and energy and its significance as a carbon sink have been recognized. In this study, with a view to decreasing the cost of producing algal biomass for various purposes, the natural medium of unsupplemented freshwater was applied to mimic the real world to produce algal biomass. The relevant physicochemical variables in the improvised algal growth environment were analyzed and monitored, to investigate the algal growth mechanism. The simple regression analysis showed the applicability of the unsupplemented natural medium with sufficient natural nutrition for algal biomass production. The multiple linear analyses explained the complexity of the mimicked freshwater mixed-algal community in the laboratory. The laboratory results obtained in the present study also provide better insights that improve our understanding of the natural algal growth characteristics.
authors.affiliation: School of Renewable Energy, Maejo University, Sansai, Chiang Mai 50290, Thailand. Electronic address: rrameshprabu@gmail.com.
authors.forename: Rameshprabu
authors.initials: R
authors.lastname: Ramaraj
authors.affiliation: Department of Soil and Water Conservation, National Chung-Hsing University, Taichung 402, Taiwan.
authors.forename: David Dah-Wei
authors.initials: DD
authors.lastname: Tsai
authors.affiliation: Department of Soil and Water Conservation, National Chung-Hsing University, Taichung 402, Taiwan.
authors.forename: Paris Honglay
authors.initials: PH
authors.lastname: Chen
mesh_terms: D018533:Biomass; D019149:Bioreactors; D046508:Culture Techniques; D004777:Environment; D016014:Linear Models; D058086:Microalgae / Q000254:growth & development*; D012044:Regression Analysis
keywords: Biomass; Microalgae; Mimicked ecosystem; Natural water medium; Statistical analysis