Based of on what I know unialgal culture contains one specific organisms of microalgae which has a bacteria, an axenic culture contains only your microalgae with any other clonal population.
So when using a growth kinetics model you can only use an axenic culture.
Yes, you can fit a model to the growth curve of unialgal culture containing heterotrophic bacteria. However, it is known that the presence of bacteria can affect algal growth, both in positive and negative ways. For example, see this excellent paper:
Grossart, H. P., and M. Simon. 2007. Interactions of planktonic algae and bacteria: effects on algal growth and organic matter dynamics. Aquatic Microbial Ecology 47(2): 163-176.
Regards,
Claude
If you use an unialgal culture to estimate a growth kinetics model, the problem is that you cannot say with certainty that the growth response is only due to the alga since you have bacteria and other organisms present (e.g. fungi). So, with a unialgal culture you are never sure who is doing what. I agree with Claude.
So, What is the best method to determine algal biomass in non-axenic systems to reduce error by other species?
Hi Jonathan
You cannot use non-axenic/unialgal to model growth kinetics of a species since there are other contaminants and cannot use for a growth kinetics model.
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