A Preliminary Study on the Effects of Inorganic Nutrient Enrichment on the Growth and Survival Rates of Green seaweed Caulerpa racemosa

Abstract

Caulerpa racemosa is one of the edible green seaweeds abundant in the Philippine waters. This seaweed is commonly collected from the wild and sold fresh in the local marketplace throughout the country. Due to harvesting pressures and increasing demand, the expansion of its culture techniques needs to be further explored. In this paper, the effects of inorganic nutrient enrichment on the growth of green seaweed C. racemosa was determined under laboratory conditions for 21 days. Three different concentrations of inorganic fertilizer (ammonium phosphate): 10 ppm (T1), 20 ppm (T2), 30 ppm (T3), and control (T4, seawater only) were used in the study in replicates. Results revealed that the specific growth rates of nutrient-enriched C. racemosa at different concentrations (T1, T2, T3, and T4) were 1.41±1.09 % day-1, 0.76±0.76 % day-1, 1.64±2.01 % day-1, and -0.44±0.48 % day-1, respectively, after 21 days of culture. Although there was no significant difference (p>0.05) among the treatments, 30 ppm (T3) concentration obtained the highest SGR and mean weight throughout the study period. All treatments survived (100%) after 21 days. Our preliminary results can be used to further investigate the effects of nutrient enrichment on Caulerpa species.

Keywords

• Caulerpa racemosa
• nutrients
• seaweeds
• specific growth rate
• enrichment

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