Filamentous species of Ulva are ideal for cultivation because they are robust with high growth rates and maintained across a broad range of environments. Temperate species of filamentous Ulva are commercially cultivated on nets which can be artificially 'seeded' under controlled conditions allowing for a high level of control over seeding density and consequently biomass production. This study quantified for the first time the seeding and culture cycle of a tropical species of filamentous Ulva (Ulva sp. 3) and identified seeding density and nursery period as key factors affecting growth and biomass yield. A seeding density of 621,000 swarmers m(-1) rope in combination with a nursery period of five days resulted in the highest growth rate and correspondingly the highest biomass yield. A nursery period of five days was optimal with up to six times the biomass yield compared to ropes under either shorter or longer nursery periods. These combined parameters of seeding density and nursery period resulted in a specific growth rate of more than 65% day(-1) between 7 and 10 days of outdoor cultivation post-nursery. This was followed by a decrease in growth through to 25 days. This study also demonstrated that the timing of harvest is critical as the maximum biomass yield of 23.0 ± 8.8 g dry weight m(-1) (228.7 ± 115.4 g fresh weight m(-1)) was achieved after 13 days of outdoor cultivation whereas biomass degraded to 15.5 ± 7.3 g dry weight m(-1) (120.2 ± 71.8 g fresh weight m(-1)) over a longer outdoor cultivation period of 25 days. Artificially seeded ropes of Ulva with high biomass yields over short culture cycles may therefore be an alternative to unattached cultivation in integrated pond-based aquaculture systems.
This research output has an Altmetric Attention Score of 7. This is our high-level measure of the quality and quantity of online attention that it has received. This Attention Score, as well as the ranking and number of research outputs shown below, was calculated when the research output was last mentioned on 08 October 2015.
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#7,417,700
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#1,387
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Altmetric has tracked 34,410,798 research outputs across all sources so far. Compared to these this one has done well and is in the 78th percentile: it's in the top 25% of all research outputs ever tracked by Altmetric.
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We're also able to compare this research output to 4,647 others from the same source and published within six weeks on either side of this one. This one has gotten more attention than average, scoring higher than 70% of its contemporaries.
