Picochlorum oklahomense Levels up on Potassium Nitrate

Abstract

Algae is an important resource that will be used more in the future. To produce algae faster and more effectively, growth stimulates can be added. Nitrogen, a vital nutrient for all algae genera may be the key nutrient (Kratz, 1955). To test this we added Potassium Nitrate, an organic source of nitrogen and hypothesized that as the level of nitrate increased, so would the algae growth because other studies have shown that nitrogen boosts algae growth (Dowell, 2017). In the experimental groups, as the nitrate increased, so did the amount of algae growth. The control on the other had growth levels higher than our first group and equal to the second. This implies that in that range we may have reached a limiting ratio of Nitrogen to Phosphorous for algae growth.