Characterization of microalgae growth and the relation with its environment

Abstract

[en] This project aims to do an analytical study of the evolution of a population of Alexandrium minutum and relate the microalgae growth with its environment. The specific goal is to use simple population models to describe the lag and exponential growth phases of this microalgae and discuss how variations in the environment conditions (mainly temperature, irradiance and salinity) affect the speed at which the populations increases. We will add into our population model a dilution constant to emulate the effects of dilution in the evolutionary process along time. To perform simulations and systematically compare the results with the available data in the literature, we have used numerical integration methods for ordinary differential equations combined with algorithms for fitting the parameters of the models. The propagation of errors has been also considered. The results show that considering the microalgae environment is important to accurately determine the growth rate. At the end of this project we have listed a few experiments proposals with the aim to confirm our calculations and provide more insights on the understanding of this microalgae.