Studies on the Growth of Phaeodactylum Tricornutum VI. the Relationship to Sodium, Potassium, Calcium and Magnesium

Abstract

The growth of certain unicellular marine algae has been shown to occur in culture solutions whose total ionic content and chemical composition departs markedly from that of natural sea water. In fact, some of these algae apparently grow more rapidly in half-strength sea water media than in a medium of salinity equal to 35‰. This ability, on the part of the algae, to grow at widely different salinities suggests that the algal cells are able to maintain an internal ionic composition despite wide variation in the external composition of the surrounding culture medium in which they are growing. Droop (1958) has shown that the major cations present in sea water can be varied within wide limits and it was decided to concentrate on the cations, sodium, potassium, calcium and magnesium. A series of analyses of Phaeodactylum tricornutum has been carried out to determine the concentrations of the four cations present in the cells and also to determine whether these concentrations vary during the growth of cells in culture over a period of time. In addition the analyses have been carried out on cells which have been grown at two different salinities, to compare internal cellular concentrations at different salinity levels of the media.