Salinity Tolerance Test on Chattonella Cultured Strains

Lee, Hong Jet (2018) Salinity Tolerance Test on Chattonella Cultured Strains. Final Year Project (Bachelor), Tunku Abdul Rahman University College.

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Abstract

The emergence of harmful algae blooms (HABs) during certain seasons in coastal waters is a recurring problem to marine life, particularly to aquaculture industries. It is therefore important to carry out studies where alternative methods can be used to monitoring the blooms of the fish-killing raphidophytes in Malaysian coastal waters. This study has been attempted to investigate the salinity tolerance of raphidophytes Chattonella antiqua using clonal culture collected from the east coast of Peninsula Malaysia (Kelantan) and northern of Borneo Sarawak (Miri). Three cultured strains of Chattonella antiqua were tested with eight different salinities regime, starting from 0 to 35 PSU. Each culture was inoculated into different salinities of seawater supplemented with F/2 medium. The culture was maintained at 12: 12 hours light:dark photo period under room temperature. The cell density was enumerated, observed under microscope every 2 to 3 days and the growth rate at different salinity was determined. The optimum growth was found to be at 35 PSU for the three strains of Chattonella antiqua shown by the highest cell density obtained. The CtSt01 strain obtained the highest specific growth rate of 0.379 division day-1 at 20 PSU, 0.197 division day-1 at 30 PSU for CtTm02 strain and 0.176 division day-1 at 25 PSU for Chmi01 strain. Salinity experiments showed adaptation of the strains to a salinity of 15 - 35 PSU. The finding highlights the tough nature of Malaysia strains, which are likely adapted to wide fluctuation of salinity in coastal area, and pose a potential to cage culture fish in Malaysian coastal waters.