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Identification of a microalgae-yeast coculture system for nutrient removal in shrimp culture wastewater

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Abstract

The accumulation of nitrogen and phosphorous has detrimental effects on aquatic animals and negatively influences the economic benefits of aquaculture; thus, the control of water quality is of significance for the development of the aquaculture industry. In this study, a coculture system of Chlorella vulgaris + Rhodosporidium sphaerocarpum exhibited superior nitrogen removal performances compared with those of either the Isochrysis galbana + R. sphaerocarpum or the Tetraselmis helgolandica + R. sphaerocarpum coculture systems. The alginate-immobilized C. vulgaris and suspended R. sphaerocarpum coculture system was advantageous in terms of nutrient removal and the inoculum ratio (IR, dry weight of C. vulgaris to dry weight of R. sphaerocarpum) of 5:1 was determined to yield optimal removal performances of nutrients and the chemical oxygen demand (COD), with which 86.20% of the NH4+ content was removed, and 100.00% removal efficiency of NO2−, NO3−, PO43−, and COD was detected after 120 h of incubation. The growth of C. vulgaris and R. sphaerocarpum was enhanced and a biomass productivity of 0.22 g L−1 day−1 was obtained. The sustainability of the optimized microalgae-yeast coculture system was confirmed by steady and consistent removal performances in semicontinuous experiments, removing over 80% of NH4+, 100% of NO3−, and over 90% of NO2−, PO43−, and COD. These results indicated that the optimized microalgae-yeast coculture system developed in our studies might provide a potential method for the biological treatment of aquaculture wastewater.

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Funding

This work was supported by the Guangdong Academy of Agricultural Science Talent Introduction Program (R2020YJ-QG001), National Natural Science Foundation of China (31602135), Guangdong Academy of Agricultural Science Discipline Team Construction Project (201614TD), Guangdong Basic and Applied Basic Research Foundation (2020A1515011115), and Science and Technology Program of Guangdong Province (2019A050505007).

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Author notes

  1. Zhizhan Luo and Wen Huang contributed equally to this work.

Authors and Affiliations

  1. Laboratory of Aquatic Sciences, Key Laboratory of Animal Nutrition and Feed Science in South China of Ministry of Agriculture and Rural Affairs, Guangdong Key Laboratory of Animal Breeding and Nutrition, Institute of Animal Science, Guangdong Academy of Agricultural Sciences, Guangzhou, 510640, China

    Zhizhan Luo, Wen Huang, Chuntian Zheng, Guoxia Wang, Xiaoying Chen, Wenyan Mo & Dun Deng

  2. School of Environmental Science and Engineering/School of Life Science, Guangzhou Higher Education Mega Center, Guangzhou University, Guangzhou, 510006, China

    Zhizhan Luo, Huiming Sun & Hu Shu

  3. Shenzhen Key Laboratory of Water Resource Application and Environmental Pollution Control, Harbin Institute of Technology Shenzhen Graduate School, Shenzhen, 518055, China

    Zhizhan Luo & Ji Li

  4. South China Sea Institute of Oceanology, Chinese Academy of Sciences, Guangzhou, 510301, China

    Wen Huang, Long Yun & Peng Luo

  5. Guangdong Provincial Engineering and Technology Research Center, Guangdong Jinyang Biotechnology Co. LTD, Maoming, 525027, China

    Wen Huang & Huo Li

Authors
  1. Zhizhan Luo
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  11. Peng Luo
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  12. Huo Li
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Contributions

Wen Huang and Hu Shu contributed to the project conception. Experiment and data analysis were conducted by Zhizhan Luo, Chuntian Zheng, Ji Li, Long Yun, Huiming Sun, Guoxia Wang, Xiaoying Chen, Wenyan Mo, Dun Deng, Peng Luo, and Huo Li. The manuscript was prepared by Zhizhan Luo and Wen Huang. All authors read and approved the final manuscript.

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Correspondence to Wen Huang or Hu Shu.

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Luo, Z., Huang, W., Zheng, C. et al. Identification of a microalgae-yeast coculture system for nutrient removal in shrimp culture wastewater. J Appl Phycol 33, 879–890 (2021). https://doi.org/10.1007/s10811-021-02379-2

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