Aquicultura de microalgas: uma proposta para a melhoria na qualidade de vida de pescadores do Nordeste do Brasil

Abstract

Microalgae are essential elements in many applications, including biomass production and use as food for aquaculture, as they form the basis of the marine food chain. Such algae can be grown in various environments, provided that it contains the appropriate culture medium for its development. However, natural culture media are not always available, implicating in the use of artificial methods for cultivation. There are several artificial cultivation methods available, but none of them are inexpensive. This research proposes to elaborate and test artificial culture media for three species of marine microalgae (Isochrysis sp., Chaetoceros sp. and Tetraselmis sp.), these being low cost and produced from artificial marine water and desalinator discard water enriched with compost residues. The proposed means of cultivation were elaborated, being carried out tests and collected the results referring to the evolution of the populations in the same ones. The microalgae Isochrysis sp. presented the best results in an artificial medium made from desalinator discard water, with a maximum cell density of 108.7 x 104 cells/mL reached on the 18th day of culture. Also Chaetoceros sp. showed the highest growth burst, reaching the peak of 87 x 104 cells/mL on the 6th day of culture. Therefore, the viability of the artificial culture media enriched with compost extract for the cultivation of microalgae was validated, being able to be applied as food in diverse aquaculture modalities and to be used to improve the quality of life of the fishing communities of Paraíba State.