Growth Profile of Chaetoceros Sp. and its Steady State Behaviour with Change in Initial Inoculum Size:A Modelling Approach

Monitoring and modelling of the growth profile of microalgae species should be an important tool for the hatchery industries before standardizing the best yielding and cost-effective protocol for their unit. Several factors are responsible in determining the nature of the growth profile. The most important regulator of such growth profile should be the volume of the initial inoculum. In addition, identification and determination of different phases (lag, log, stationary, etc.) of the growth curves of microalgae may be an essential part in the growth profile monitoring. Estimation of growth phases will also help the hatchery scientists in standardizing the commercial culture for industry. Moreover, the transition of different phases can be accurately identified through theoretical models, which are mostly overlooked in simple analysis. Summing up, we have two precise objectives: (1) to study the effects of choice of initial inocula levels on the time to maturity of the Chaetoceros sp., (2) to model the growth profile of the species from which we can theoretically determine its different phases, based on the optical density measurement as a proxy of the biomass. The estimated values of each phase are compared under two initial inocula levels through statistical tests. Using the conceptual approach of the proposed theoretical technique, there is scope for developing a similar model, which can be used in determining cost-effective culture protocol for commercial use.