Nitrogen Preference for Growth Rate of Ulva reticulata cultivated in Eutrophied Coastal Waters: A Seaweed Laboratorium Testing Experiment

This study aims to evaluate seaweed Ulva reticulata preference for available nitrogen forms of eutrophic coastal waters for its growth rate. Simple experiment was developed for laboratorium testing of U. reticulata preference for NH 3 , NO 2 , NO 3 for 20 days. Levels of those nitrogen species and their composition were provided naturally from filtered eutrophic coastal waters of western coast of south Sulawesi Indonesia, without any exchange. The composition of NH 3 :NO 2 :NO 3 in the eutrophic water of the experiment was 1.0 : 2.4 : 3.3. The results showed that the NO 2 was the most preferred form of nitrogen for the growth. The average amount of uptake of NO 2 , NH 3 , and NO 3 was respectively 4.58 ± 1.71 μg/l/day, 2.70 ± 0.17 μg/l/day, and 1.98 ± 1.19 μg/l/day. The average growth rate of U. reaticulata was 15.40 ± 3.12 % day-1 .