Algae Aquatic Analysis

1. INTRODUCTION:

Algae are often associated as plants that do not have roots, stems or leaves and have basic methods of reproduction. They undergo carbon fixing and oxygenation. Some have primitive animal behaviour such as motility, other algae such as the blue-green algae have cellular functions, structure and behaviour similar to that of a bacteria. The habitats of algae vary widely but most of them are in aquatic environments and are essential in the aquatic ecosystem. Furthermore, a few species are found to be living in soil, snow, or have close interrelation to other organisms like fungi. Aquatic algae are found in both fresh and marine waters. Algae vary widely in size and shape, from microscopic organisms to large kelps. Their morphology

HSCCC is used to fractionate the components inside the algae. GCMS is then used to identify and quantitate the fatty acids. Fractionation allows for better resolution and easier identification of fatty acids. A lot of variable have to be considered and kept equal during compound identification to make sure results or “peaks” are at the best resolution. Factors like the type of mobile/stationary phase, amount of mobile/stationery phase, the vaporising temperature, and elution time have to be considered for the whole

The growth conditions can be manipulated by controlling the temperature, location, and growth medium used. However, these conditions will be kept constant, instead, external substances or supplements would be added to the algal cultures to test for increase in growth or antimicrobial activity. The different parameters added into the medium are selected based on reference from various research articles. From these articles we drew our own hypothesis and tested on the different conditions. All the microalgal cultures in this project are grown in Bold’s Basal Medium (BBM). BBM is chosen as the standard medium because it is chemically defined, making it easy to produce. The chemicals found in the medium are also beneficial to the growth of microalgae. Furthermore, there are no vitamins or organic compounds in the medium thus it does not promote bacterial growth, decreasing risk of