• Korean Journal of Environmental Biology
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• v.32 no.4
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• pp.306-310
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• 2014

The brown seaweed Sargassum fusiforme is an edible and highly valued in Korea. During the summer season, phytal organisms graze heavily on young algal blades and holdfastsof the species and substantially reduce harvestable biomass. Here, in this study, we investigated the effects of pH (range: 2~13) and salinity (range: 0~44 psu) on the removal of two major phytal animals, Caprella scaura and Gammaropsis utinomi, associated with S. fusiforme. We also examined the optimum quantum yield (Fv/Fm) of algae in the same experimental conditions to quantify the tolerance of algae to acid and salinity treatments. It was observed that the phytal animals showed more than 80% mortality at pH lower that pH 4 and the extreams of salinity (0~10 psu and 44 psu) after a 5 min of immersion. However, the quantum yield of S. fusiforme was not significantly different from controls within the pH 3~11 range, and the 0~44 psu salinity range. Precisely, if the pH and salinity conditions outside these ranges were used in comercial Sargassum culture, the removal of the animal species would be higher, but with reduced quantum yield of algae. Taken together, our study results indicated that the pH and salinity treatments could allow multiple harvests from the same holdfast of S. fusiforme.