A novel approach to build algal consortia for sustainable biomass production
Abstract
In the last decade, microalgae have reemerged as a feedstock for biofuels and a diverse suite of bioproducts. Yet, considerable challenges must be overcome before algal biofuels and bioproducts become technoeconomically viable. At present, single algal strain selected for particular phenotypic traits, such as maximum specific growth rate or lipid content, are commonly scaled for cultivation in open, outdoor raceway ponds due to the low capital costs of these systems. Although this monoculture approach may maximize the production of end products, monocultures are particularly susceptible to crashes associated with environmental and biological variability. An approach that has been proposed to generate more productive and stable microalgal crops is the use of eco-engineered communities, or consortia. Yet, attempts to construct productive consortia have not been consistently successful. We argue that failures stem from the lack of an eco-engineering approach to design species combinations. Here, we used an in silico method to build consortia before testing their performance against monocultures. Focusing on consortia of Nannochloropsis and Microchloropsis, we measured growth of strains along gradients of light, temperature, and salinity and used a functional dispersion approach to generate over 8000 functionally-diverse consortia combinations. We tested the 50 most functionally diverse consortia in amore »
- Authors:
-
- New Mexico Consortium, Los Alamos, NM (United States)
- Publication Date:
- Research Org.:
- New Mexico Consortium, Los Alamos, NM (United States)
- Sponsoring Org.:
- USDOE
- OSTI Identifier:
- 1895427
- Alternate Identifier(s):
- OSTI ID: 1867924
- Grant/Contract Number:
- EE0008122
- Resource Type:
- Accepted Manuscript
- Journal Name:
- Algal Research
- Additional Journal Information:
- Journal Volume: 65; Journal ID: ISSN 2211-9264
- Publisher:
- Elsevier
- Country of Publication:
- United States
- Language:
- English
- Subject:
- 09 BIOMASS FUELS; Biofuel; Bioproducts; Complementarity; Microalgae; Microchloropsis; Nannochloropsis; Overyielding; Net biodiversity effect
Citation Formats
Mandal, Shovon, and Corcoran, Alina A. A novel approach to build algal consortia for sustainable biomass production. United States: N. p., 2022.
Web. doi:10.1016/j.algal.2022.102734.
Mandal, Shovon, & Corcoran, Alina A. A novel approach to build algal consortia for sustainable biomass production. United States. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.algal.2022.102734
Mandal, Shovon, and Corcoran, Alina A. Tue .
"A novel approach to build algal consortia for sustainable biomass production". United States. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.algal.2022.102734. https://www.osti.gov/servlets/purl/1895427.
@article{osti_1895427,
title = {A novel approach to build algal consortia for sustainable biomass production},
author = {Mandal, Shovon and Corcoran, Alina A.},
abstractNote = {In the last decade, microalgae have reemerged as a feedstock for biofuels and a diverse suite of bioproducts. Yet, considerable challenges must be overcome before algal biofuels and bioproducts become technoeconomically viable. At present, single algal strain selected for particular phenotypic traits, such as maximum specific growth rate or lipid content, are commonly scaled for cultivation in open, outdoor raceway ponds due to the low capital costs of these systems. Although this monoculture approach may maximize the production of end products, monocultures are particularly susceptible to crashes associated with environmental and biological variability. An approach that has been proposed to generate more productive and stable microalgal crops is the use of eco-engineered communities, or consortia. Yet, attempts to construct productive consortia have not been consistently successful. We argue that failures stem from the lack of an eco-engineering approach to design species combinations. Here, we used an in silico method to build consortia before testing their performance against monocultures. Focusing on consortia of Nannochloropsis and Microchloropsis, we measured growth of strains along gradients of light, temperature, and salinity and used a functional dispersion approach to generate over 8000 functionally-diverse consortia combinations. We tested the 50 most functionally diverse consortia in a laboratory experiment and found that consortia overwhelmingly outperformed monocultures. Indeed, overyielding (OY) and a positive net biodiversity effect (NBE) was found respetively in 8%-86% and 88-92% of consortia combinations over the different experimental phases. To our knowledge, this is the first application of an in silico approach to design functionally diverse consortia before laboratory and field testing. Furthermore, our results highlight the importance of employing a functional diversity approach for consortia design.},
doi = {10.1016/j.algal.2022.102734},
journal = {Algal Research},
number = ,
volume = 65,
place = {United States},
year = {Tue May 10 00:00:00 EDT 2022},
month = {Tue May 10 00:00:00 EDT 2022}
}
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