Chemistry/Biology/Environmental
Joint Seminar
Thursday in RNS 310 starting at
7:00 p.m. with snacks served during seminar and ICE CREAM SUNDAES after the
seminar, (served by SOCS).
Val H. Smith, Ph.D.
Professor
Ecology and Evolutionary Biology
University of Kansas
The Ecology of Algal Biofuels
One of the greatest hurdles to algal biofuels scale-up is
achieving high yields of the algal feedstock's from which these fuels are
created. The reliable and sustainable mass cultivation of microalgae is a
key limiting step for the entire commercial enterprise, and successful crop
protection against undesirable biomass losses will be a critically important
component of these cultivation efforts. As is true of the
terrestrial plants that are cultivated for domestic agriculture, large-scale
algal growth facilities will be susceptible to invasions by a diverse array of
highly undesirable competitors, plant-consuming pests, and pathogens that can
dramatically reduce achievable yields. I will identify and discuss
several core principles of community ecology that have direct relevance to
successful large-scale algal biofuels production: nutrient limitation of
crop production, protection of the crop against losses to invertebrate grazers,
and protection of the crop against losses to algal pathogens.
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