Aquaculture Effluent is a Good Fertilizer But Not a Biostimulant of Plant Growth and Flowering

摘要

Microalgae are a diverse group of 1-50 pm photoautotrophic, unicellular organisms (Cooper and Smith 2015) sometimes found in soils and on rock surfaces (Sahu et al. 2012) but mainly in water bodies. Microalgae are a rich source of carbohydrates, lipids, proteins, pigments, oils, plant biostimulants and other plant growth-promoting substances such as vitamins, amino acids and sugars (Borowitzka 2013, Mishra and Pabbi 2004. Stirk et al. 2002). In crop production, microalgae are capable of fixing atmospheric nitrogen into a bioavailable source of ammonium required for plants (Malik etal. 2001). Microalgae are also a potential source of bioactive compounds (auxin, gibberellin and cytokinin) (Rodriguez et al. 2006) and several companies have recently started to commercialize microalgae as plant biostimulants (van der Voort et al. 2015) and biofertilizers.