Climate change brought about by anthropogenic CO₂ emissions has created a critical need for effective CO₂ management solutions. Microalgae are well suited to contribute to efforts aimed at addressing this challenge, given their ability to rapidly sequester CO₂ coupled with the commercial value of their biomass. Recently, microalgal biofilms have garnered significant attention over the more conventional suspended algal growth systems, since they allow for easier and cheaper biomass harvesting, among other key benefits. However, the path to cost-effectiveness and scaling up is hindered by a need for new tools and methodologies which can help evaluate, and in turn optimize, algal biofilm growth. Presented here is a novel system which facilitates the real-time in situ monitoring of algal biofilm CO₂ sequestration. Utilizing a CO₂-permeable membrane and a tube-within-a-tube design, the CO₂ sequestration monitoring system (CSMS) was able to reliably detect slight changes in algal biofilm CO₂ uptake brought about by light–dark cycling, light intensity shifts, and varying amounts of phototrophic biomass. This work presents an approach to advance our understanding of carbon flux in algal biofilms, and a base for potentially useful innovations to optimize, and eventually realize, algae biofilm-based CO₂ sequestration.

中文翻译：

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一种用于光合自养生物膜中二氧化碳隔离的实时，原位监测的新型系统。

人为产生的CO ₂排放引起的气候变化已迫切需要有效的CO ₂管理解决方案。鉴于微藻能够迅速隔离CO ₂的能力，它们非常适合为应对这一挑战的努力做出贡献加上其生物质的商业价值。近来，微藻生物膜比更常规的悬浮藻生长系统引起了极大的关注，因为它们允许更容易和更便宜地收获生物质，以及其他关键优势。但是，由于需要新的工具和方法来帮助评估和优化藻类生物膜的生长，因此阻碍了成本效益和规模扩大的道路。这里介绍的是一个新颖的系统，它有助于藻类生物膜CO ₂隔离的实时原位监测。利用CO ₂渗透膜和管中管设计，CO ₂隔离监测系统（CSMS）能够可靠地检测藻类生物膜CO _2中的微小变化光-暗循环，光强度变化和数量不同的光养生物质带来的吸收。这项工作提出了一种方法，可以增进我们对藻类生物膜中碳通量的理解，并为潜在的有用创新提供基础，以优化并最终实现基于藻类生物膜的CO ₂隔离。