News

1. Nannochloropsis (Genus: Nannochloropsis, Division: Ochrophyta): Culture Description: Nannochloropsis appears as small spherical cells typically arranged in colonies or as single cells under microscopic observation. These cells often have a grass green coloration, attributed to their similarity to terrestrial plant pigments. 

2. Porphyridium (Genus: Porphyridium, Division: Rhodophyta): Culture Description: Porphyridium presents itself as red-pink microalgae visible under a microscope. These unicellular organisms often aggregate in colonies, displaying a characteristic reddish hue due to the presence of phycoerythrin pigments. Its antioxidant-rich nature makes it a valuable addition to enhance coral coloration and overall health.

3. Isochrysis (Genus: Isochrysis, Division: Haptophyta): Culture Description: Isochrysis cells appear as golden-brown, single-celled microalgae. Under a microscope, they exhibit distinct flagella, allowing them to move actively in the culture medium. Isochrysis's high DHA content, visible as golden-brown cells, makes it an ideal nutritional supplement for larval fish and beneficial for coral health.

4. Tetraselmis (Genus: Tetraselmis, Division: Chlorophyta): Culture Description: Tetraselmis is characterized by its green-colored, spindle-shaped cells, often observed as solitary cells or forming small colonies. These microalgae possess two flagella, contributing to their motility within the culture. Its high protein content and efficient nutrient uptake benefit coral growth and development.

5. Thalassiosira (Genus: Thalassiosira, Division: Bacillariophyta): Culture Description: Thalassiosira comprises single-celled diatoms with intricate silica shells, visible under a microscope as symmetrical, glass-like structures. These microalgae form chains or colonies and are known for their ability to efficiently absorb nitrates and phosphates, aiding in maintaining optimal water quality in the reef tank.

Introducing a combination of these microalgae species can significantly contribute to the nutritional needs, coloration, and overall health of corals within a reef tank environment. Careful monitoring and balanced supplementation of these microalgae can foster a vibrant and thriving coral ecosystem.

Introducing Porphose: Algae-Powered Skincare Coming Soon!

What is Porphose?

Porphose is formulated with Porphyridium algae, rich in polysaccharides (PCSPs)—sulfated compounds that naturally soothe, hydrate, and protect the skin. These polysaccharides create a moisture-locking layer on the skin while also delivering antioxidants and anti-inflammatory benefits. The seawater matrix in Porphose delivers essential minerals and nutrients to nourish your skin, helping it stay hydrated and rejuvenated.

A Natural Skincare Solution with Purpose

Porphose isn’t just about skincare—it’s about continuing our mission to use algae to improve the world. Every purchase of Porphose supports our algae education programs, bringing us closer to a future where algae is a powerful tool for climate health.

More Information Coming Soon!

We’ll have more information on production schedules and availability in the coming weeks. Stay tuned as we prepare to launch Porphose and share the amazing benefits of algae-based skincare with you.

Thank you for being part of this journey with us. Your support means the world to our mission and our planet.

Erol Altug, an A.P Biology teacher at the Stony Brook School in New York, Led his class in an experiment to determine the affect light has on algae growth. Using our Beaker Bag Algae Growing kits, the students set up two identical algae cultures. One was placed under fluorescent light that was on 24/7 while the other was placed high on a cabinet and only exposed to overhead lights when class was in session as well as whatever natural light was available in the classroom. After 9 months the Students had their answer. 

So what do you think, Does light affect growth? 

Check out their results below:

His class also performed an experiment on how Salinity affects Brine shrimp in our Brainy Briny Bags, check out their results here:

Nestled in the sandy desert of Santa Fe, New Mexico is Apogee Spirulina Farms. Over 5,000 square feet of ponds full of Spirulina glisten in the Santa Fe sunshine, cultured by Nicholas Petrovic using the “French Artisanal” method of algae cultivation. Nic has been growing Spirulina for about seven years and absolutely loves it. Spirulina has become increasingly popular as a sustainable source of protein.

Spirulina culture at Apogee Spirulina

Nic starts his days at 5:30 a.m. to beat the New Mexico heat. He checks out all his ponds, harvests some algae if need be, and does general maintenance around the farm. Done by noon, Nic is able to relax and enjoy his day. He goes back in the afternoon once the sun has gotten lower in the sky to ensure everything is functioning. Aside from general farm work, Nic brings his algae to farmers markets a few times a week, and teaches workshops on how to grow algae.
I asked Nic why he uses the French method to cultivate algae. The answer? “Quality of life.” Nic says, “The French have a different attitude, they don’t rush… the Spirulina will be there tomorrow.” This laid-back way of cultivating just calls for farmers to harvest what they need and keep the ponds growing, rather than constantly growing more and expanding.

Nic Petrovic

As with most people we interview, Nic did not always know about his passion for algae. He studied hotel and restaurant management in college, and owned a valet parking company in San Francisco for some time. After the economic crash of 2008, he wanted to change his path and entered the field of sustainability. In 2009, Nic attended a class that grew algae for biofuel research. Nic found fuel production interesting but could tell the technology wasn’t quite ready to sell algae as biofuel commercially. However, he fell in love with algae and particularly enjoyed working with Spirulina.

As Nic began growing Spirulina, he was immersed in a network of small-scale Spirulina farmers in New Mexico. He wanted to learn more about growing, and eventually was put in touch with algae cultivators in France. In 2012, Nic went to France to learn their method of Spirulina culturing.

Currently, Nic has an agreement with Santa Fe Community College: he can use their land, water, and power to grow Spirulina, and in return he teaches a few classes and takes on interns. This partnership allows Nic to cultivate his algae while continuing to spread his knowledge and inspire more algae farmers. In addition to running his own farm, Nic also offers workshops for those interested in cultivating algae. Nic’s Apogee Spirulina Farm is all about paying it forward, and he is happy to report that many of his workshop attendees have started their own farms all over the world.

Nic believes it is incredibly important to learn about algae, and strongly believes that “It’s the future.”Algae has a small footprint and is very high in protein. Part of the reason Nic entered the Spirulina farming trade is because New Mexico is a food desert, and he wants to help remedy that. “I’m all about feeding people right now,” he added.

For those who may be interested in algae culturing, Nic has some advice: patience. According to Nic, those who grow algae shouldn’t rush to see results, but rather enjoy the process. “Everyone should be growing some Spirulina at home,” he says, “ It’s the wonder algae.” Finally, Nic encourages those who grow algae to share their knowledge. In France, all the algae culturing knowledge is open-source, and Nic wants to continue that sharing in his own practice. The algae world is all about sharing and lifting each other up, rather than competition.

Learn more about Apogee Spirulina here
Find Apogee Spirulina on social media here: Instagram Facebook

Blast off! Haley Roach and her teaching team of Park Heritage Middle School has created a “Journey to Mars” project for her students involving math, physics, biology, government, and, most importantly, ALGAE! Haley teaches 6th and 7th grade science at Park Heritage middle school in rural Indiana, and absolutely loves her job. Algae Research and Supply (ARS) was lucky enough to meet Haley when she was designing the “Journey to Mars” project, and we are very excited to learn more about her! 

Haley Roach

Haley describes teaching as “the best job in the world”. As her mentor once told her, being a teacher gives you the freedom of an entrepreneur, and the job security of a businessman. Haley finds this sentiment true. She loves her students and creating lesson plans is a creative outlet. “Teaching is my job but also my hobby,” Haley says. She is able to explore her creative side when designing lessons and her classroom, and is happy to spend time with funny, smart, and creative tweenagers. 

The “Journey to Mars” activity is Haley’s end of the year project. You can find more information here. This project not only involves science, but math and social studies knowledge as well. It involves the whole teaching team! Haley was inspired to do the project because she knew that algae is an excellent source of oxygen, and is edible. She found ARS online and bought some algae. Though the project started out a little rocky, Haley got in touch with Matt (ARS’ Cheif Scientist) and they worked together to make the project a success! Haley says “it was really easy to work with Algae Research and Supply, I wish I'd found you guys sooner. There are lots of free resources and help”. 

Haley thinks it’s incredibly important for kids to learn about algae. “Half the world’s oxygen comes from algae,” Haley says. In the future, she wants to ask her students where oxygen comes from, and explain the importance of algae to them. Plus, photosynthesis experiments and demonstrations are much easier to do with algae than with land plants in terms of time and space. Haley’s classroom is full of algae cultures in our Beaker Bags. They don’t take up a lot of space, and are easy to clean up. Finally, the potential for algae to be used as biofuel is a fascinating concept Haley has introduced to her students. Her students have been very interested in the concept of algae as biofuel, which is promising, as they are our future scientists. 

Haley did not always know she wanted to be a teacher (which I think is crazy because she’s so passionate). Haley studied at Purdue university, and was initially on the Pre- Vet track. However, Haley did not like cutting things open, and quickly switched to biology. While studying biology, she realized she loved it and understood it much more than her peers. She began tutoring her peers in biology, and the lightbulb went off -- she should be a biology teacher!  Haley initially taught high school bio, but when she was on maternity leave, a job opened at her local middle school. Though she initially never thought of teaching middle school, she had a gut instinct that it would be perfect for her. “I had to have this job… I wanted to be Miss Frizzle,'' Haley joked. Haley has now been at Park Heritage middle school for three years, and is so happy to be teaching all kinds of science, meeting creative, smart, and hilarious kids, and participating in the community she teaches in. 

For more info about the “Journey to Mars” project, click here

For algae lesson plans, click here

- Erin F. Fox, 2021

Great Work David Lillard, AP Biology teacher in Kalispel, MT!!!

"we changed an abiotic factor to see how it affects the population of algae and then the brine shrimp eat the algae, so you know if we change the algae population it’s going to affect the brine shrimp as well,” Lillard said.

Article link:

Article:

By HILARY MATHESON
Daily Inter Lake | May 19, 2021 12:00 AM

As schools shut down and students were quarantined during the pandemic, educators such as Glacier High School science teacher David Lillard sought ways to give students a hands-on experience whether they were at school or at home.

In Lillard’s case it was a lab he came up with called Algae Alive!, drawing inspiration from an experiment he saw on display at a Seattle science conference he attended with colleagues prior to the pandemic. Algae Alive! ties into a unit on ecology and lets students design an experiment using algae and brine shrimp by coming up with their own questions, hypotheses and independent variables.

Through a Kalispell Education Foundation $1,098 grant, he was able to purchase supplies and equipment that would be easily accessible to students on campus or at home. He has also reached out to other teachers about adapting the project to the elementary and middle-school level.

“I’m always looking for ways that we can have living things in the lab that we can experiment with,” Lillard said. “It’s hard to find living models that, you know, are cheap and can be used effectively in the classroom without a lot of equipment, and I just thought it was a cool idea. It’s actually its own little ecosystem.”

FORTUNATELY, WHILE the lab was being conducted in his Advanced Placement (AP) biology class last month, all the students were attending school on campus.

On April 21, the AP biology students were nearing the end of the 17-day lab. At one table, junior Bridgett Meskis opened up her notebook where she was tracking data such as algae growth and was on the third day of tracking the brine shrimp, which they had added on day 10.

“We’re learning how different parts of the environment work together,” Meskis said.

The lab focuses on how abiotic (non-living) factors, such as temperature, light and salinity, for example, affect the population of algae and brine shrimp, Lillard explained.

“So we changed an abiotic factor to see how it affects the population of algae and then the brine shrimp eat the algae, so you know if we change the algae population it’s going to affect the brine shrimp as well,” Lillard said.

“They designed their independent variable — what they wanted to test — and so they had to have different hypotheses,” he added.

Meskis’ group changed salinity.

“We have all these samples of water and they all have different amounts of salt in relation to the water and then we put algae in,” Meskis said. “We let the algae grow and we measured how much of it there is and then put brine shrimp in. Will the ecosystem we’ve created favor algae or the brine shrimp?

“We’re trying to determine what the environment prefers, or what organisms prefer what environments,” she added.

IN ANOTHER group, junior Marius DeVries said they changed light intensity using different bulb wattages. Group member Kait Giffin said the group hypothesized “If the populations have more light then they will grow better and faster.”

Counting the brine shrimp will tell how the algae population relates to the brine-shrimp population, DeVries said. In preparing to count the shrimp, DeVries turned on his phone’s flashlight function and held it up to a graduated cylinder containing the greenish liquid to better see the tiny aquatic crustaceans.

“The alga is a producer and it gets its energy and grows from the light and then the brine shrimp eat that,” DeVries said, basically showing how they limit each other.

He said at the end of the lab, the group plans to plot the data on a chart.

“Eventually, at the end, we can average the data and once we graph it we’ll be able to make a good conclusion.”

Lillard noted, “Hopefully they’re going to see how the population of algae has changed over that period of time.”

Reporter Hilary Matheson may be reached at 758-4431 or by email at hmatheson@dailyinterlake.com

Yes-absolutely!   But, it is not always the easiest to control.

Phosphate is one of the macronutrients.  N:P:K in photosynthetic world are the macronutrients Nitrogen (N), Phosphorus (P), and Potassium (K).  For most algae cultures, a ratio of 5:1:1 to 10:1:1 is appropriate for NPK.  

Knowing that the nitrogen and phosphorus are significantly different in the concentrations needed to satisfy the growth of plants, we at ARS will encourage folks new to growing algae and experiments to use nitrogen, not phosphorus, for their first experiments.   You are much more likely to successful limiting N than P.  

Why:  Higher concentrations of N and it is easier to measure (test strip).  Measuring phosphorus is challenging because very low concentrations can have dramatic effects on photosynthesis.   Your body is composed of NPK, how much phosphate will be added to water by simply dipping in your finger?   

I want to test phosphate.

No problem.   We suggest doing a two-step dose response (video on how to).  Step 1- Test from a concentration of ZERO, and increase the concentration exponentially to a toxic concentration.   In doing so, you can capture the entire range of what is possible.  

Step-2 Refine the range to explore your point of interest.  You could consider exploring the fastest growth, largest cells, minimum concentration for growth, or lethal dose (LD)

How much phosphate should I add?

Water concentrations of phosphate are between 0.001 to 0.5mg/L.  So pick a your dilutions to encapsulate those ranges.  

• Phosphate is an ion PO³⁻ , so when you add a salt of phosphate you need to consider the molar range, not just the mass.
• Consider what other ions are included, it is often expeditious for fertilizer manufacturers to include a nitrogen in the material as well.  
• Some phosphate is insoluble in water- rock phosphate.

sources of phosphate:

• ammonium phosphate: (careful, has ammonia, a nitrogen source)
• calcium phosphate: ( ok to use)
• Trisodium phosphate:  often used as a cleaner be careful if it has additional chemicals.
• rock phosphate:  not readily soluble in water
• phosphoric acid:  our favorite. Its already dissolved and can be pipetted.  

Resources:  

Great article by the US EPA on water monitoring of phosphorus.  

Some of our California Neighbors made some versions of our algae bead labs for their middle school students.   They offered to share them here:  

*Be a cool human rules apply: cite them/us, no profit made from repackaging lessons, all the standard copyright stuff!

Lab-1:  The Effect of Light Intensity on Photosynthesis (Google Sheet) (PDF)

Lab-2:  The Effect of Temperature on Photosynthesis (Google Sheet) (PDF)

The ARS lessons are attached to the product page for each kit.

Consider watching our videos on Photosynthesis and Temperature also.

Our Interview with Harris Muhlstein

We all know that children are the future of our planet -- our future doctors, scientists, teachers, and researchers. With this in mind, Algae Research Supply is honored to have recently interviewed Harris Muhlstein, the School Programs Coordinator for the University of North Carolina, Wilmington’s (UNCW) MarineQuest program. Algae Research Supply got to know Mr. Muhlstein through our teacher training program.

Muhlstein (known as ‘Mr. M’) works with educators to plan and lead marine-science field trips in his lab at the Center for Marine Science, in the field (at beaches and marshes, on research vessels and floating docks, on kayaks in the Cape Fear River and Intercoastal Waterway), at schools, or virtually.  Most of the lessons and projects are based on actual UNCW student research and all are designed to make learning fun and engaging. As Mr. M puts it, “MarineQuest is more than just another day at the beach; MarineQuest is making waves in environmental education!”

Muhlstein loves working with kids. “Because I began my career as a professional scientist with a strong research background, I absolutely love to immerse my students in relevant marine science experiences where they get to utilize the scientific method to solve problems.” He also says that introducing young students to phytoplankton is one of his favorite things to do, as it is not normally on their minds when they think of ocean life. Muhlstein says that while most kids think about dolphins, whales, sharks, and other megafauna, he  gets “...a real kick out of blowing their minds with an in-depth exploration of the extreme biodiversity of the plankton community.” After blowing their minds, Muhlstein introduces young scientists to the vast world of educational and career opportunities for those who are interested in these “awesome drifters.” 

MarineQuest has been around for over 40 years now, and provides excellent opportunities for young people interested in the marine environment. UNCW works with the Center for Marine Science and the Watson College of Education to bring programs that allow young people to explore and discover marine habitats. These programs shape our youth into becoming environmentally responsible adults. MarineQuest offers school programs, weekend programs, and summer camps for kids from preschool to pre-college. 

Muhlstein was not always a science educator, however. He grew up as a “beach bum” on the coast of Long Island. In addition to having this connection to the ocean, his father was an abalone diver and Muhlstein says, “The stories of his haphazard adventures always captivated me and probably were the spark that sent me on this wild marine science/education journey.” In addition, Muhlstein’s home on the water made him very aware of the devastating impact Harmful Algal blooms had on livelihood, the economy, and the shellfish industry. He had never considered a career in education, as speaking in front of people made him nervous.

His “spark” so to speak occurred in his junior year at UNCW. His guest lecturer, a phytoplankton researcher, told the story about how his lab solved the mystery of mass penguin deaths at a popular aquarium. After examining gut samples, the lab discovered the penguins were consuming fish with high levels of a toxic diatom. In a “soap opera twist for the ages” one of Muhlstein’s fellow students had fed the penguins before the incident! After class, Muhlstein asked the guest lecturer if he could volunteer in his lab...and the rest is history.

 After earning a BS in Marine Biology from UNCW, and an MS in Marine Science with a focus in phytoplankton ecology from the University of Texas, Muhlstein went on to be a phytoplankton ecologist at UNCW’s Center for Marine Science. There, he worked in a lab that specialized in culturing harmful algae. His first experience in teaching- an introductory Oceanography Lab class- changed all that. He found that he had been nervous for nothing, and not only was talking in front of people not bad, it was actually really good! As his career as a phytoplankton ecologist, he would often fondly remember his times in the classroom. With the support of his supervisor, he jumped into the education world and never looked back. He began teaching in high school classrooms, but transitioned to his current position as School Program Coordinator at MarineQuest when the job presented itself. It is truly the perfect position, as it combines his love for marine education with his research background.  

Algae Research Supply is very grateful for the people out there like Mr. M, committed to the education of our future climate leaders.

For more about MarineQuest, click here

• Erin F. Fox, 2021