Dr. Johnson received the Algae Biomass Organization Mid-Career Excellence Award – For excellence in scholarly achievements and a record of productive, independent, and impactful peer-reviewed research and creative scholarship activities “Dr. Johnson has made vast contributions to the peer-reviewed literature in areas associated with microalgae cultivation, oceanography, molecular ecology, and microbiology genetics. He has served as PI …
Expanding markets for microalgae and macroalgae products have led to increased development of commercial farming operations. While microalgae and macroalgae, or seaweed, have historically been harvested in many parts of the globe, more recent developments seek to improve productivity, decrease production costs, increase scale, and mitigate environmental impacts of cultivation. This review describes current progress …
The biological pump plays a vital role in exporting organic particles into the deep ocean for long-term carbon sequestration. However, much remains unknown about some of its key microbial players. In this study, Labyrinthulomycetes protists (LP) were used to understand the significance of heterotrophic microeukaryotes in the transport of particulate organic matter from the surface …
This study determined effects of full-fatted (C046, 41% crude protein) and lipid extracted (LEA, 39% crude protein) microalgae Desmodesmus sp. on growth performance, gut health, and excreta hydrothermal liquefaction of broiler chickens. Two experiments were conducted by feeding day-old Cornish male chicks: 1) a corn-soybean meal basal diet (control) 2) control +5% C046, or 3) …
While disappointingly not algae related….unless it is….Lauren was a winner at the 2020 DUML pumpkin carving competition. Well done!
Xie N, Hunt DE, Johnson ZI, He Y, Wang G (2020). Annual Partitioning Patterns of Labyrinthulomycetes Reveal Their Multifaceted Role in Marine Microbial Food Webs. Appl Environ Microbiol: AEM.01652-01620. https://doi.org/10.1128/aem.01652-20 Heterotrophic microbes play a key role in remineralizing organic material in the coastal ocean. While there is a significant body of literature examining heterotrophic bacterioplankton …
Economical production of algal commodities (food, feed, and fuels) requires reusing cultivation water to reduce operating costs. While some algae strains show growth inhibition in reused water, other strains appear unaffected. Reusing water to grow different strains (i.e., crop rotation) could potentially improve overall biomass production compared to water reuse with the same strain by …
Ambient conditions shape microbiome responses to both short- and long-duration environment changes through processes including physiological acclimation, compositional shifts, and evolution. Thus, we predict that microbial communities inhabiting locations with larger diel, episodic, and annual variability in temperature and pH should be less sensitive to shifts in these climate-change factors. To test this hypothesis, we …
The Pivers Island Coastal Observatory (PICO) sampled its 1000th time point today. The time-series, was started in 2010 by a Duke undergraduate (Christina C.) interested in the temporal variability of ocean acidification. Ten years later, the time-series has generated a rich, publically available dataset to examine the physical, chemical and biological variability associated with regular …
Salmonid feeds can be formulated with high quality microalgae to maintain sustainability in the aquaculture industry. But, the suitability of different microalgae species as potential feed ingredients needs to be documented to enable ready acceptance by the farming industry. The aim of the present study is to investigate the potential of the microalga Scenedesmus sp. …