Earth, Atmosphere & Environment Sciences
Title : | Survey and documentation of rocky inter tidal seaweed diversity, and identification of potential seaweed with nutritional property |
Area of research : | Earth, Atmosphere & Environment Sciences |
Focus area : | Ocean science |
Principal Investigator : | Dr. Temjensanglba Imchen , Senior Scientist, Biological Oceanography Department, CSIR-National Institute of Oceanography, Dona Paula, Goa |
Timeline Start Year : | 2021 |
Timeline End Year : | 2024 |
Details
Executive Summary : | Seaweed is defined as a diverse and distantly related non-phylogenetic group of macroscopic
aquatic eukaryotes comprising mainly of Chlorophyta (green algae), Phaeophyta (brown algae)
and Rhodophyta (red algae) (Suutari et al. 2014). It may be noted that India has nearly 844 species
of seaweed in 217 genera (Oza and Zaidi, 2001). In addition to the ecological importance, seaweed
is a popular delicacy in parts of Asia and a source of hydrocolloids like agar, alginates, and
carrageenan including bioactive molecules (Rajabakse and Kim, 2011). However, the study of
seaweed diversity and its resource potential has been relegated in recent years despite its
importance. This is evident from the lack of adequate information from the last two decades. This
view is further strengthened by the data of seaweed resources along the coast of India
(Dhargalkar and Pereira, 2005; Reddy et al. 2006), and there is apparent knowledge gap as a
result. In view of this, the present proposal has been made to survey and document the rocky intertidal macroalgal diversity, and identification of potential macroalgae with nutritional property
from the Konkan coast. It may also be mentioned that the future nutrition source is predicted to
be from the seaweed, and the present proposal is aptly in line with this vision |
Total Budget (INR): | 48,85,800 |
Organizations involved