Abstract: This work examined the energy return of Chlorella vulgaris and Dunaliella tertiolecta cultivated in a gas-sparged photobioreactor design where the power input for sparging was manipulated (10, 20, and 50 Wm(-3)). Dry weight, organic carbon and heating values of the biomass were measured, plus a suite of variables including Fv/Fm and dissolved oxygen. A model for predicting the higher heating value of microalgal biomass was developed and used to measure the energetic performance of batch cultivations. High power inputs enhanced maximum biomass yields, but did not improve the energy return. Cultivation in 10 Wm(-3) showed up to a 39% higher cumulative net energy return than 50 Wm(-3), and increased the cumulative net energy ratio up to fourfold. The highest net energy ratio for power input was 19.3 (D. tertiolecta, 12% CO(2), 10 Wm(-3)). These systems may be a sustainable method of biomass production, but their effectiveness is sensitive to operational parameters.

Abstract: Microalgae are considered to be a potential alternative to terrestrial crops for bio-energy production due to their relatively high productivity per unit area of land. In this work we examined the amount of dissolved organic matter exuded by algal cells cultured in photobioreactors, to examine whether a significant fraction of the photoassimilated biomass could potentially be lost from the harvestable biomass. We found that the mean maximum amount of dissolved organic carbon (DOC) released measured 6.4% and 17.3% of the total organic carbon in cultures of Chlorellavulgaris and Dunaliella tertiolecta, respectively. This DOM in turn supported a significant growth of bacterial biomass, representing a further loss of the algal assimilated carbon. The release of these levels of DOC indicates that a significant fraction of the photosynthetically fixed organic matter could be lost into the surrounding water, suggesting that the actual biomass yield per hectare for industrial purposes could be somewhat less than expected. A simple and inexpensive optical technique, based on chromophoric dissolved organic matter (CDOM) measurements, to monitor such losses in commercial PBRs is discussed.

Abstract: Although the seasonal ice cover of the Baltic Sea has many similarities to its oceanic counterpart in Polar Seas and Oceans, there are many unique characteristics that mainly result from the brackish waters from which the ice is formed, resulting in low bulk salinities and porosities. In addition, due to the milder climate than Polar regions, the annual maximum ice extent is highly variable, and rain and freeze-melt cycles can occur throughout winter. Up to 35% of the sea ice mass can be composed from metamorphic snow, rather than frozen seawater, and in places snow and superimposed ice can make up to 50% of the total ice thickness. There is pronounced atmospheric deposition of inorganic nutrients and heavy metals onto the ice, and in the Bothnian Bay it is estimated that 5% of the total annual flux of nitrogen and phosphorus and 20–40% of lead and cadmium may be deposited onto the ice fields from the atmosphere. It is yet unclear whether or not the ice is simply a passive store for atmospherically deposited compounds, or if they are transformed through photochemical processes or biological accumulation before released at ice and snow melt.As in Polar sea ice, the Baltic ice can harbour rich biological assemblages, both within the ice itself, and on the peripheries of the ice at the ice/water interface. Much progress has been made in recent years to study the composition of these assemblages as well as measuring biogeochemical processes within the ice related to those in underlying waters. The high dissolved organic matter loading of Baltic waters and ice result in the ice having quite different chemical characteristics than those known from Polar Oceans. The high dissolved organic material load is also responsible in large degree to shape the optical properties of Baltic Sea ice, with high absorption of solar radiation at shorter wavelengths, a prerequisite for active photochemistry of dissolved organic matter.Land-fast ice in the Baltic also greatly alters the mixing characteristics of river waters flowing into coastal waters. River plumes extend under the ice to a much greater distance, and with greater stability than in ice-free conditions. Under-ice plumes not only alter the mixing properties of the waters, but also result in changed ice growth dynamics, and ice biological assemblages, with the underside of the ice being encased, in the extreme case, with a frozen freshwater layer.There is a pronounced gradient in ice types from more saline ice in the south to freshwater ice in the north. The former is characteristically more porous and supports more ice-associated biology than the latter. Ice conditions also vary considerably in different parts of the Baltic Sea, with ice persisting for over half a year in the northernmost part of the Baltic Sea, the Bothnian Bay. In the southern Baltic Sea, ice appears only during severe winters.