Effect of Different Levels of Salinity on Growth and Lipid Content in Freshwater Microalgae

Main Article Content

Azhar A Al-Saboonchi
Ghalib A Al-Kaisse
Ihsan H Al-Timimi
Sarah S Jalal
Hasanean A Marashi

Abstract

Salinity imposes stress on various living organisms like microalgae, the study focuses on the effect of salinity concentrations on cell growth and lipid content for four isolated freshwater microalgae (Chlorella vulgaris, Scenedesmus sp., Nitzschia palea, and Anabaena sp.). These selected algae were cultured in different treatments of salinity (0.5, 1.5, 1.5, and 2.5 gm/l). The results show that changes in salinity have significant effects on growth and lipid content, the growth tends to decline as salinity increases. Lipid content was different among studying algae depending on the range of tolerance, the amount of lipids increased when salinity increased too.

Article Details

Al-Saboonchi, A. A., Al-Kaisse, G. A., Al-Timimi, I. H., Jalal, S. S., & Marashi, H. A. (2025). Effect of Different Levels of Salinity on Growth and Lipid Content in Freshwater Microalgae. Archives of Case Reports, 207–212. https://doi.org/10.29328/journal.acr.1001148
Research Articles

Copyright (c) 2025 Al-Saboonchi AA, et al.

Creative Commons License

This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International License.

The Archives of Case Reports is committed in making it easier for people to share and build upon the work of others while maintaining consistency with the rules of copyright. In order to use the Open Access paradigm to the maximum extent in true terms as free of charge online access along with usage right, we grant usage rights through the use of specific Creative Commons license.

License: Copyright © 2017 - 2025 | Creative Commons License Open Access by Archives of Case Reports is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International License. Based on a work at Heighten Science Publications Inc.

With this license, the authors are allowed that after publishing with the journal, they can share their research by posting a free draft copy of their article to any repository or website.

Compliance 'CC BY' license helps in:

Permission to read and download
Permission to display in a repository
Permission to translate
Commercial uses of manuscript

'CC' stands for Creative Commons license. 'BY' symbolizes that users have provided attribution to the creator that the published manuscripts can be used or shared. This license allows for redistribution, commercial and non-commercial, as long as it is passed along unchanged and in whole, with credit to the author.

Please take in notification that Creative Commons user licenses are non-revocable. We recommend authors to check if their funding body requires a specific license. 

1. Klass LD. Biomass for renewable energy, fuels and chemicals. New York: Academic Press. 1998;1–2. Available from: https://www.scirp.org/reference/referencespapers?referenceid=1964504

2. Koh LP, Ghazoul J. Biofuels, biodiversity and people: understanding the conflicts and finding opportunities. Biol Conserv. 2008;141:2450–2460. Available from: https://doi.org/10.1016/j.biocon.2008.08.005

3. Huesemann MH. Can advances in science and technology prevent global warming? A critical review of limitations and challenges. Mitig Adapt Strateg Glob Change. 2006;11:539–577. Available from: https://www.scirp.org/reference/referencespapers?referenceid=708096

4. Chisti Y. Biodiesel from microalgae. Biotechnol Adv. 2007;25(3):294–306. Available from: https://doi.org/10.1016/j.biotechadv.2007.02.001

5. Ermis H, Altinbas M. Effect of salinity on mixed microalgae grown in anaerobic liquid digestant. Water Environ J. 2020;34(S1):820–830. Available from: https://ui.adsabs.harvard.edu/abs/2020WaEnJ..34S.820E/abstract

6. Pate R, Klise G, Wu B. Resource demand implications for US algae production scale up. Appl Energy. 2011;88:3377–3388. Available from: https://doi.org/10.1016/j.apenergy.2011.04.023

7. Wargacki AJ, Leonard E, Win MN, Regitsky D, Santos C, Kim P. An engineered microbial platform for direct biofuel production from brown microalgae. Science. 2012;335(6066):305–313. Available from: https://doi.org/10.1126/science.1214547

8. Wayman C. Handbook of bioethanol production and utilization. Washington (DC): Taylor and Francis; 1996. Available from: https://doi.org/10.1201/9780203752456

9. Eshaq FS, Ali MN, Mold MK. Production of bioethanol from next generation feedstock algae Spirogyra species. Int J Eng Sci Technol. 2011;3:1749–1755. Available from: https://www.researchgate.net/publication/50406997_Production_of_Bioethanol_from_next_generation_feed-stock_alga_Spirogyra_species

10. Prescott GW. Algae of the Western Great Area. 2nd ed. Koenigstein: Otto Koeltz Science Publishers; 1982.

11. Sinigalliano CD, Winshell J, Guerrero M, Scorzetti G, Fell J, Eaton R, Brand L, Rein KS. Viable cell sorting of dinoflagellates by multiparametric flow cytometry. Phycologia. 2009;48:249–257. Available from: https://doi.org/10.2216/08-51.1

12. Bellinger EC, Sigee DC. Algae as bio-indicators. In: Freshwater algae: identification and use as bio-indicators. Chichester (UK): John Wiley and Sons Ltd.; 2010;1–150.

13. Desikachary TV. Cyanophyta. New Delhi: Indian Council of Agricultural Research; 1959;686. Available from: https://www.scirp.org/reference/ReferencesPapers?ReferenceID=1693451

14. Carrieri D, Momot D, Brasg IA, Ananyev G, Lenz OB, Bryant DA. Boosting fermentation rates and product yield with sodium stress: application to renewable fuel production by Cyanobacteria. Appl Environ Microbiol. 2010;76(19):6455–6462. Available from: https://doi.org/10.1128/aem.00975-10

15. Mus F, Dubini A, Seibert M, Posewitz MC, Grossman AR. Anaerobic adaptation in Chlamydomonas reinhardtii: anoxic gene expression, hydrogenase induction and metabolic pathways. J Biol Chem. 2007;282:25475–25486. Available from: https://doi.org/10.1074/jbc.m701415200

16. Monika PR, Trishnamoni G, Nikunj S. Effect of salinity, pH and light intensity on growth and lipid production of microalgae for bioenergy application. J Biol Sci. 2015;:260–267. Available from: https://thescipub.com/abstract/ojbsci.2015.260.267

17. Sudhir P. Effect of salt stress on basic processes of photosynthesis. Photosynthetica. 2004;42:481–486. Available from: https://link.springer.com/article/10.1007/S11099-005-0001-6

18. Kirrolia A, Bishnoi RN, Singh N. Salinity as a factor affecting the physiological and biochemical traits of Scenedesmus sp. J Algal Biomass Util. 2011;2:328–341. Available from: https://storage.unitedwebnetwork.com/files/521/65823ac7d7dbbe44224c9d0679c3e2d7.pdf

19. Jawad AM. Interaction between cyanobacteria and other micro-organisms [dissertation]. Liverpool (UK): University of Liverpool; 1982. Available from: https://livrepository.liverpool.ac.uk/3175724/1/331923.pdf

20. Khan SA, Rashmi M, Hussain SP, Banerjee UC. Prospects of biodiesel production from microalgae in India. Renew Sustain Energy Rev. 2009;13(9):2361–2372. Available from: https://doi.org/10.1016/j.rser.2009.04.005

21. Hussain S, Salleh A. Biodiesel fuel production from algae as renewable energy. Am J Biochem Biotechnol. 2008;4(3):250–254. Available from: https://thescipub.com/pdf/ajbbsp.2008.250.254.pdf

22. Carere CR, Sparling R, Cicek N, Levin DB. Third generation biofuels via direct cellulose fermentation. Int J Mol Sci. 2008;9:1342–1360. Available from: https://doi.org/10.3390/ijms9071342

23. Phuka MM, Chutia RS, Konwar BK, Kataki R. Microalgae Chlorella as a potential bio-energy feedstock. Appl Energy. 2011;88(10):3307–3312. Available from: https://ideas.repec.org/a/eee/appene/v88y2011i10p3307-3312.html

24. Borges FC. Proposal of a conceptual model of a decentralized biorefinery [dissertation]. Porto Alegre (RS): Universidade Federal do Rio Grande do Sul; 2010. Portuguese. Available from: https://lume.ufrgs.br/bitstream/handle/10183/24714/000744737.pdf;sequence=1

25. AOAC International. Official methods of analysis. 16th ed. Gaithersburg (MD): AOAC International; 1995.

26. Mulumba N, Farag IH. Tubular photobioreactor for microalgae biodiesel production. Int J Eng Technol. 2012;4(2):703–709. Available from: https://www.researchgate.net/publication/259866896_Tubular_Photobioreactor_for_Microalgae_Biodiesel_Production