ESTONIA
Estonian Marine Institute scientists work with macroalgae to improve the Baltic Sea environment
Innovative projects show promising results Tiina Paalme, Estonian Marine Institute
Researchers at the University of Tartu’s Estonian Marine Institute are working on a number of projects that seek to address some of the environmental challenges facing the Baltic Sea and, at the same time, to benefit the aquaculture industry.
Cultivation of Furcellaria lumbricalis under manipulated light conditions in 2 m3 aerated tanks filled with natural seawater.
T
he term algae refers to a large group of mainly photosynthetic organisms ranging from unicellular microalgae species to vast multicellular forms such as kelp. Algae are found in marine environments, in freshwater, and even on land. In the sea they extend down to a depth of about 150 m depending on the transparency of the water and they may be either fixed to the bottom (benthic species) or float freely in the water column
(planktonic species). Marine algae are a source of many nutritionally valuable minerals, trace elements, vitamins, and even of small volumes of fats rich in omega-3 fatty acids. Some species also have a high protein content— up to 47. Cultivating these may offer advantages over traditional high protein crops as they would not need freshwater to grow. The divisions and classes that algae are grouped into often refer to the colour of the algae, for example,
Cyanophyta are blue-green, Chlorophyta, green, and Rhodophyta, red.
Macroalgae have a variety of uses Among the most useful products to be extracted from red algae in particular are gelling agents, which are widely used in the food and other industries. This property of red algae to thicken products has been known and exploited
since the 17th century and is due to the presence of the phycocolloids, agar and carrageenan. In the Baltic Sea few algal species are exploited commercially, but interest in algae is growing—for their nutritional value, their content of commercially useful compounds, and also for their potential to mitigate the impacts on the environment of fish farming. At the Estonian Marine Institute, Tiina Paalme has been working to develop intensive land-based &VSPl TI .BHB[JOF
