Effect of Environmental Physico-Chemical Parameters on the Biochemical Composition of Wild Icelandic Laminaria digitata and Saccharina latissima (Laminariaceae, Phaeophyceae)

As global demand for algae products continues to rise, development of efficient cultivation methods for these resources becomes ever more essential. However, to date, there is still little known about how macroalgae respond to their environment, particularly in regard to fluctuations in their biochemistry. To address this, research was conducted which compared levels of biochemical components in two indigenous brown marine macroalgae species (Laminaria digitata and Saccharina latissima), wild harvested from two study sites located in Iceland. Results of these analyses were then mapped to the following environmental physico-chemical variables present at each of the respective sites: seawater chemistry (i.e., pH, salinity, total phosphorus, orthophosphate-P, nitrate-N, nitrite-N, ammonium-N, and dissolved oxygen), climatological data (i.e., relative humidity, sea surface temperature, air temperature, wind speed, and atmospheric pressure), tide depth, and daylight duration.