Effect of selenium on the growth of some selected green and blue-green algae

An algal assay procedure using microplate technique was carried out to assess the effect of selenium on the growth of some green and blue-green algae. Sodium selenite pentahydrate (Na₂SeO₃.5H₂O) and selendioxide (Se₂O₄) were tested as selenium. The test algae were Selenastrum capricornutum, Scenedesmus obliquus, Chlorella sp., Monoraphidium convolutum, Monoraphidium contortum, Monoraphidium griffithii, Anabaena flos-aquae, Micro-cystis aeruginosa, and Oscillatoria agardhii. The blue-green algae are toxin-producing strains. Cell number and in vivo chlorophyll fluorescence were the growth parameters of green and blue-green algae respectively. Dose-response curves quantify the selenium toxicity in terms of EC₅₀. The lowest selenium concentrations giving no detectable growth (EC₁₀₀) were visually inspected. The test algae showed distinctly different responses to various selenium treatments. Selenium at concentrations < 0.1 mg L⁻¹ stimulates, to varying degrees, the growth of all the green algae with one exception: S. capricornutum was dramatically inhibited at all treatments. O. agardhii, A. flos-aquae and M. aeruginosa showed marginal growth stimulation up to 0.1 mg Se L⁻¹, 1.0 mg Se L⁻¹ and 3.2 mg Se L⁻¹ respectively. In terms of EC₅₀, the compound selendioxide was more toxic to greens than sodium selenite. The reverse was indicated for the blue-greens. In general, the EC₅₀ presented a wide range (0.08–7.2 mg Se L⁻¹), with the lowest values reported for S. obliquus and the highest for M. aeruginosa. All the test algae, except S. obliquus, maintained observable growths at higher selenium levels (EC₁₀₀>1.0<100mg Se L⁻¹).