Seaweeds – An irreplaceable necessity to the mankind
Prakash
IIT Kharagpur
Global food consumption is leading to food shortages due to the increase in the human population. As a result of the latter, the western world is showing an increasing interest in alternative food sources, such as the saltwater macroalgae known as seaweed. Cultivation of macroalgae produced offshore is a promising food source as it does not compete with food crops for arable land or drinking water. Additionally, seaweed is a good way to mitigate climate change and is good for purifying eutrophic waters that might otherwise suffer massive biodiversity losses.
This is critical to eliminating the need to feed a growing population on a planet where there will not be enough land for agricultural crops, as seaweed production does not compete for inland arable land, freshwater, or agricultural fertilizers. Seaweeds are photoautotrophic organisms and one of the main producers in brackish and brackish waters. They synthesize organic matter together with light and CO2 from inorganic nutrients such as dissolved inorganic nitrogen (DIN) and dissolved inorganic phosphorus (DIP). The organic material produced can then be eaten by another organism in the ecosystem or used in foodstuffs and other products.
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Prakash
IIT Kharagpur
Prakash is a final year MTech Aquacultural Engineering student from IIT Kharagpur. He has completed his internship at MRC on the study of environmental and hydrodynamic parameters on the growth of commercially important economic seaweed species of India. Currently, his research is based on the Utilization of seaweeds as a bio-filter to treat Mariculture effluents – an IMTA system.