Improving the Effectiveness of a Nutrient Removal System Composed of Microalgae and Daphnia by an Artificial Illumination

In-Ho Chang, Dawoon Jung and Tae Seok Ahn
Additional contact information
In-Ho Chang: Department of Environmental Science, Kangwon National University, 313 Natural Science Building 2, Chuncheon, 200-701, Kangwon-do, Korea
Dawoon Jung: Department of Environmental Science, Kangwon National University, 313 Natural Science Building 2, Chuncheon, 200-701, Kangwon-do, Korea
Tae Seok Ahn: Department of Environmental Science, Kangwon National University, 313 Natural Science Building 2, Chuncheon, 200-701, Kangwon-do, Korea

Sustainability, 2014, vol. 6, issue 3, 1-13

Abstract: For determining the effect of illumination on nutrient removal in an artificial food web (AFW) system, we launched a pilot continuous-flow system. The system consisted of a storage basin, a phytoplankton growth chamber, and a zooplankton growth chamber. A 25,000 Lux AFW-light emitting diode (LED) on system and an AFW-LED off system were separately operated for 10 days. In the AFW-LED on system, the maximum chlorophyll- a concentration of the phytoplankton chamber was four times higher than that of the AFW-LED off system. With artificial nighttime illumination, the microalgae became both smaller and more nutritious; the microalgae became high quality food for the zooplankton, Daphnia magna . Consequently, this zooplankton became more efficient at extracting nutrients and grew more densely than in the AFW-LED off system condition. In the LED-on condition, the amounts of total nitrogen (TN) and total phosphorus (TP) flowing into the system for 10 days were 84.7 g and 20.4 g, and the amounts flowing out were 19.5 g (23%) and 4.0 g (20%), respectively. In contrast, in the LED-off condition, 83.8 g and 20.6 g of TN and TP flowed into the system while 38.8 g (46%) and 6.8 g (33%) flowed out, respectively. Artificial illumination significantly improves the removal rate of nutrients in an AFW system.

Keywords: artificial food web system; nutrient removal; artificial illumination; light-emitting diode; phytoplankton; zooplankton; ecological engineering (search for similar items in EconPapers)
JEL-codes: O13 Q Q0 Q2 Q3 Q5 Q56 (search for similar items in EconPapers)
Date: 2014
References: View references in EconPapers View complete reference list from CitEc
Citations: View citations in EconPapers (1)

Downloads: (external link)
https://www.mdpi.com/2071-1050/6/3/1346/pdf (application/pdf)
https://www.mdpi.com/2071-1050/6/3/1346/ (text/html)

Related works:
This item may be available elsewhere in EconPapers: Search for items with the same title.

Export reference: BibTeX RIS (EndNote, ProCite, RefMan) HTML/Text

Persistent link: https://EconPapers.repec.org/RePEc:gam:jsusta:v:6:y:2014:i:3:p:1346-1358:d:33941

Access Statistics for this article

Sustainability is currently edited by Ms. Alexandra Wu

More articles in Sustainability from MDPI
Bibliographic data for series maintained by MDPI Indexing Manager ().