Cultivation factors and population size control the uptake of nitrogen by the microalgae Chlorella vulgaris when interacting with the microalgae growth-promoting bacterium Azospirillum brasilense.

Growth of and the capacity to take up nitrogen in the freshwater microalgae Chlorella vulgaris were studied while varying the concentrations of ammonium and nitrate, the pH and the source of carbon in a synthetic wastewater growth medium when co-immobilized in alginate beads with the microalgae growth-promoting bacterium Azospirillum brasilense. Analyses of 29 independent experiments showed that co-immobilization of the microalgae with A. brasilense could result in two independent phenomena directly affected by cultivation factors, such as nitrogen species, pH and presence of a carbon source. First, growth of the microalgal population increased without an increase in the capacity of the single cells to take up nitrogen, or second, the capacity of cells to take up nitrogen increased without an increase of the total microalgal population. These phenomena were dependent on the population density of the microalgae, which was in turn affected by cultivation factors. This supports the conclusion that the size of the microalgal population controls the uptake of nitrogen in C. vulgaris cells - the higher the population (regardless the experimental parameters), the less nitrogen each cell takes up.