Assessing Arthrospira platensis Growth Rates in three Jeju Local Medium, Including Jeju Magma Seawater.

Jeju Magma Seawater (JMS), naturally formed beneath the bedrocks of Jeju island, consists of high micronutrient concentrations such as Zinc (Z, 0.019 mg/L), Iron (F, 0.015 mg/L), Manganese (M, 0.008 mg/L), Vanadium (V, 0.015 mg/L), Selenium (S, 0.013 mg/L) and Germanium (G, 0.002 mg/L). Despite the extensive research conducted upon the conventional Zarrouk medium used in Arthrospira platensis culture industry, the commercial potential of JMS on the growth of Arthrospira platensis has been poorly investigated. With respect to growth rate and cost efficiency, the purpose of the study is to discern and compare the growth of Arthrospira platensis in JMS with other accessible mediums on Jeju island. This study investigated the effects of three different growth mediums: Jeju Magma Seawater (JMS), Jeju seawater (JS), and Artificial seawater (AS) to assess their impact on the growth of Arthrospira platensis measured by biomass concentration (g L-1). The ANOVA results showed that JMS exhibited higher growth levels compared to JS ((p = 0.001) < 0.05) and AS (p=0.001). The results of the t-test revealed a statistically significant disparity between mean mass growth in JMS micronutrient-present environment and JMS micronutrient-absent environment (T = 7.94, p (= 4.57e-05) < 0.05). However, based on the growth rate over this experiment, it is estimated that the cost of cultivation required to obtain the same amount of mass is more than seven times higher in JMS compared to conventional Zarrouk medium. Therefore, it is believed that there are limitations to immediate commercialization.