Jorunn Skjermo
Senior Research Scientist- Name
- Jorunn Skjermo
- Title
- Senior Research Scientist
- Phone
- 982 45 040
- Department
- Environment and New Resources
- Office
- Trondheim
- Company
- SINTEF Ocean AS
In MACROSEA we study the earliest life stages of S. latissima, A. esculenta and P. palmata to establish the threshold levels for environmental variables on seedling quality and thus improved hatchery conditions.
here is a need for better understanding of the impact of the quality of spores, gametophytes and seedlings for the productivity, quality and chemical composition during grow-out at sea, but few methods exist for quality measurements. Quality parameters are also important in development of adjusted and effective techniques for use in seaweed hatcheries. In MACROSEA we study the earliest life stages of S. latissima, A. esculenta and P. palmata to establish the threshold levels for environmental variables on seedling quality and thus improved hatchery conditions.
A seedlings cultivation protocol for the red algae P. palmata has been optimized by studying the seasonal dependency for fertility, different methods for spore release from fertile tissue and surface disinfection of sorus, and the MSc-thesis «Investigation of important steps in Palmaria palmata cultivation» by R. R. Bøe has been published and a paper by PS Schemedes et al has been submitted. A sea cultivation experiment with Palmaria has been carried out as the first in Norway starting with spore release and attachment on nets, incubation for 3 months and deployment in IMTA in winter (Feb). The plants grew slow during the spring, but in June a high density and blades up to 15 cm were registered. As a measure to improve the quality in the seedling production of Saccharina latissima 11 different methods for seedlings production and deployment were tested in 2018. Sporophytes and gametophytes were seeded on twines and incubated for 2 to 6 weeks before spinning on ropes and deployed, in addition to cultures of gametophytes and microscopic sporophytes that were seeded directly on cultivation ropes using a commercial glue as binder (Forbord et al in press). We have developed image analysis methods for effective estimation of seedling coverage on seeded material before deployment (WP5), a method showing good correlation with frond lengths in sea.
The last years activities in WP1 has included optimization of the seedlings cultivation protocol for P. palmata, where Master student Renate Rimstad Bøe (NTNU) in collaboration with PhD-student Peter Schmedes (DTU) has studied the seasonal dependency for fertility, different methods for spore release from fertile tissue and surface disinfection of sorus. A sea cultivation experiment with Palmaria has also been carried out, as the first ever in Norway starting with spore release and attachment on nets, incubation for 3 months and deployment in IMTA in February. The plants developed slowly during the spring but in June high density and blades up to 20 cm were registered.
Since Palmaria attracts a lot of interest among both researchers and companies in the Northern Europe we arranged a Palmaria-workshop 24.October 2017 with the following participants:
Urd Bak, PhD-student (Ocean Rainforest), Eleanor Woods, MSc-student (SAMS), Peter Schmedes, PhD-student (DTU), Mithila Subramanian, MSc (UiO), Siv Etter, PhD-student (NTNU), Kjell Inge Reitan, Professor (NTNU), Silje Forbord, PhD-student (NTNU/SINTEF), Jorunn Skjermo, senior scientist, Aleksander Handå, research manager and Ole Jacob Broch, senior scientist (all SINTEF Ocean).
As a measure to improve the quality in the seedling production 11 different methods for seedlings production and deployment were tested. We seeded sporophytes and gametophytes on twines and incubated for 2 to 6 weeks before spinning on ropes and deployment, in addition cultures of gametophytes and microscopic sporophytes were seeded directly on cultivation ropes using a commercial glue. All ropes were deployed at the same day in February and still the 6 week "gold standard" gave the longest sporophytes in May all other treatments also performed well. The photo below is from registration of growth after 4 months cultivation of S. latissima seeded either directly on the cultivation rope using glue just before deployment (left) or on twine followed with an incubation period of 6 weeks before deployment (right).
Seeded ropes were prepared and sent from SINTEF Sealab to all participants for deployment at sea in early February. A few challenges occurred due to missing licences for some sites the first weeks and some struggled to get equipment and seedlings in place due to bad weather. We have still managed to get quite some good data sets from several locations. In addition to the industry partners our PhD and MSc students have done a great job with getting registrations done at the different locations. The monitoring programme is completed and we are currently doing analysis.
We have carried out a number of experiments to identify good metods for quality evaluation of Alaria gametophyte cultures. OD- and fluorescence-measurements, chemical composition and photo imaging are among the analysis used on material from experiments with different seeding densities and growth enhancers. Preliminary results suggest that a photoperiod of 23:1 h L:D gives fastest fertility induction and that a period of 8 days are needed before seeding.
A workshop on cultivation of the red algae Palmaria palmata (WP1 and WP2) with contributions from DTU Food, DTU Aqua, SAMS, NTNU, and UiO was arranged at SINTEF Sealab in Trondheim in October 2017.