The Effect of Salinity on Growth and Chlorophyll Content in Representative Classes of Unicellular Marine Algae

Title: The Effect of Salinity on Growth and Chlorophyll Content in Representative Classes of Unicellular Marine Algae. Significant Findings, Questions and Observations: The purpose of this study was to determine if there was a general relationship between the relative amount of chlorophyll per cell and growth at various salinities in unicellular marine algae. Salinity is an important and critical ecological component to a marine environment and habitat, specially those inland. Through out this study growth …

…at lower salinity levels and that two of the organisms looked at showed salinity optima. A possible reason for organisms showing resistance to salinity levels may be due to the organism being osmotically adaptive to the environment. However, this trend was only noted in water with a salinity less than full strength seawater. Finally, the report suggests and describes that salinity is an important factor in controlling the distribution of organisms in the marine environment.