An Potential Alternative in Sustainable Horticulture: Microalgae

Year 2025, Volume: 9 Issue: Special, 358 - 377, 28.12.2025

Yaşar Ertürk , Meral Kutlu

https://doi.org/10.31015/2025.si.35

Abstract

The fact that food demand will increase in parallel with the global population growth over the years necessitates maximizing crop yields. There is also increasing interest in biostimulants that can replace conventional methods for this purpose and enable access to healthy food. Among biostimulants, microalgae have the potential to function as environmentally friendly biostimulants that improve product quality and yield. Microalgae are single celled, mostly phototrophic organisms with broad environmental adaptability. Microalgae contain a wide variety of biomolecules, including N-fixing enzymes, soluble AAs, biomineral conjugates, polysaccharides, and phytohormones. The use of microalgae and cyanobacteria in agricultural production, aided by new technological advancements, has been shown to have other positive effects, such as increasing soil fertility, providing resistance to abiotic stress in plants, stimulating defensive responses against pathogens and infections, and improving the uptake of nutrients such as phosphorus (P), potassium (K), N, and minerals from the soil. Therefore, microalgae, including cyanobacteria, are renewable resources with a wide range of applications in agricultural. These products can be very useful in improving agricultural sustainability and even facilitate high production with less environmental impact. For these reasons, microalgae production is an activity that has gained global attention due to its potential economic and commercial opportunities. Microalgae can be produced using wastewater, recovering nutrients and preserving water for later use. This assessment covers the fundamental and applied aspects of microalgae that impact critical agricultural needs. The main purpose of this review is to summarize the modes of action of microalgae-based plant growth additives, their usage methods and recommendations, and the studies conducted on all these subjects.

Keywords

Microalgae , Cyanobacteria , Biostimulant , Bio-based products , Sustainable horticulture , Biopesticides

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