Engineering of bio-mimetic substratum topographies for enhanced early colonization of filamentous algae.

ABSTRACT: This work reveals a set of surface topography parameters that are significant for algal attachment to natural rock substrata. Topography analysis of rock surfaces from a stream identifies three descriptive areal parameters (Smr, Sv, and Sa) that correlate with the presence of natural periphyton community. A method was developed and validated to reverse engineer and manufacture artificial substrata with topographic complexity defined by these parameters, using computational modeling and additive manufacturing. Results from colonization experiments with filamentous algae show statistically significant increases in early biomass accrual rates on substrata with higher values of Sa and Sv parameters and lower values of Smr parameter. These results suggest that manipulation of the level of rough

SUBMITTER: Khoshkhoo A 

PROVIDER: S-EPMC6611581 | biostudies-literature | 2019

REPOSITORIES: biostudies-literature