title: The contribution of bacteria to algal growth by carbon cycling.
abstract: Algal mass production in open systems is often limited by the availability of inorganic carbon substrate. In this paper, we evaluate how bacterial driven carbon cycling mitigates carbon limitation in open algal culture systems. The contribution of bacteria to carbon cycling was determined by quantifying algae growth with and without supplementation of bacteria. It was found that adding heterotrophic bacteria to an open algal culture dramatically enhanced algae productivity. Increases in algal productivity due to supplementation of bacteria of 4.8 and 3.4 times were observed in two batch tests operating at two different pH values over 7 days. A kinetic model is proposed which describes carbon limited algal growth, and how the limitation could be overcome by bacterial activity to re-mineralize photosynthetic end products.
authors.affiliation: School of Chemical Engineering, The University of Queensland, St Lucia, 4072, Brisbane, Queensland.
authors.forename: Xue
authors.initials: X
authors.lastname: Bai
authors.forename: Paul
authors.initials: P
authors.lastname: Lant
authors.forename: Steven
authors.initials: S
authors.lastname: Pratt
mesh_terms: D001419:Bacteria / Q000254:growth & development* / Q000378:metabolism*; D002244:Carbon / Q000378:metabolism*; D002708:Chlorella / Q000254:growth & development* / Q000378:metabolism*; D006863:Hydrogen-Ion Concentration
chemical_list: D002244:Carbon
keywords: algae; algal cultivation; bacteria; carbon cycling; modeling