Biodiversity and disease risk in an algal biofuel system: An experimental test in outdoor ponds using a before-after-control-impact (BACI) design.

Autor: Widin SL; School for Environment and Sustainability, University of Michigan, Ann Arbor, Michigan, United States of America., Billings KM; School for Environment and Sustainability, University of Michigan, Ann Arbor, Michigan, United States of America., McGowen J; Arizona Center for Algae Technology and Innovation (AzCATI), Arizona State University, Mesa, AZ, United States of America., Cardinale BJ; Department of Ecosystem Science and Management, Penn State University, University Park, PA, United States of America.
Jazyk: angličtina
Zdroj: PloS one [PLoS One] 2022 Apr 28; Vol. 17 (4), pp. e0267674. Date of Electronic Publication: 2022 Apr 28 (Print Publication: 2022).
DOI: 10.1371/journal.pone.0267674
Abstrakt: For outdoor cultivation of algal feedstocks to become a commercially viable and sustainable option for biofuel production, algal cultivation must maintain high yields and temporal stability in environmentally variable outdoor ponds. One of the main challenges is mitigating disease outbreaks that leads to culture crashes. Drawing on predictions from the 'dilution effect' hypothesis, in which increased biodiversity is thought to reduce disease risk in a community, a teste of whether algal polycultures would reduce disease risk and improve feedstock production efficiencies compared to monocultures was performed. While the positive benefits of biodiversity on disease risk have been demonstrated in various systems, to the best of our knowledge this is the first test in an algal biofuel system. Here, the results a before-after-control-impact (BACI) experimental design to compare mean monoculture (control) and polyculture (impact) yield, stability, and productivity before and after fungal infection when grown in 400-L outdoor raceway ponds are presented. It has been found that polycultures did not experience a reduction in disease risk compared to monocultures or differ in production efficiencies throughout the course of the 43-day experiment. These results show that polyculture feedstocks can maintain similar levels of productivity, stability, and disease resistance to that of a monoculture. Determining whether these results are generalizable or represent one case study requires additional outdoor experiments using a larger variety of host and pathogen species.
Competing Interests: The authors have declared that no competing interests exist.
Databáze: MEDLINE
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