Effect of Ionic Copper Toxicity on the Growth of Green Alga, Selenastrum capricornutum

The growth of Selenastrum capricornutum in culture was investigated as a function of ionic copper concentrations to verify the toxicity and physiological variation. In a $Cu^{++}$ excess culture (E: $Cu^{++}$ of $130{\mu}g/l$), the growth rate (K)(0.32) was lower than that of the control culture (C: $Cu^{++}$ of $0.065{\mu}g/l$) (0.61) after 8 days and the exponential growth rate ($R_E$) was also found to be lower in culture E (1.1) than culture C (2.9). On the contrary, the K of S. capricornutum in trace $Cu^{++}$ culture ($T_1$ and $T_2$, 0.72) after 6 days tended to be more increased than culture C (0.68). From 8 to 14 days of culture, the amounts of chlorophyllls a and b were increased in culture C (chlorophyll a, $106->126{\mu}g/g$ dry wt; chlorophyll b, $158->208{\mu}g/g$ dry wt; chlorophyll b were decreased in culture E (chlorophyll a, $309->235{\mu}g/g$ dry wt; chlorophyll b, $405->352{\mu}g/g$ dry wt). The amounts of chlorophylls in ionic copper trace culture ($T_1$ and $T_2$) [(chl a/b) of $T_1$: $384/620\;{\mu}g/g$ dry wt; (chl a/b) of $T^2$:$320/467{\mu}g/g$ dry wt] were increased more than the culture C($260/387{\mu}g/g$ dry wt). Howeveer, when photosynthetic rates were normalized to the dry weight of algae, the control culture continued to showed higher values than the treated culture ($T_1$). An appropriate amount of ionic copper ($T_1:\;26\;{\mu}g/l$) stimulated the grwoth of S. capricornutum than the ionic copper content of $13\;{\mu}g/l$ ($T_2$), while the excess amount of ionic copper ($130\;{\mu}g/l$) resulted in the highest toxicity to the growth of S. capricornutum.