Chemical control of overwintering green algae to mitigate green tide in the Yellow Sea

Abstract

It has been 14 years since the world's largest Ulva bloom appeared in the Yellow Sea, China in 2007. Although it is clear that the Ulva bloom originates from the culture system of Porphyra yezoensis (Nori) in the southern Yellow Sea, how to control it is still little understood. Since overwintering banks played a crucial role in the development of spring population of green algae on the cultivation ropes, here, a promising method was presented to prevent the development of Ulva bloom by the inactivation of the overwintering banks of green algae on the P. yezoensis cultivation ropes during February and early March. Chlorine dioxide, an environment-friendly disinfectant was used as algaecide with dosage of no lower than 40 mg/L at the contact time of 1 min. The overwintering green algae gradually disappeared within two weeks after the treatment. Furthermore, the growth of spring population of green algae on the cultivation ropes was effectively inhibited for at least eight weeks, which contribute to prevent the formation of floating populations during cultivation facilities collection. It was expected that the present method, if to be applied in the P. yezoensis cultivation areas in southern Yellow Sea, may mitigate the magnitude of the Ulva blooms in the Yellow Sea at a lower cost.

Keywords: Chlorine dioxide; Overwintering banks; Ulva blooms.