Abstract
An attempt of indoor experiment has been made to determine the apparent photosynthesis of several benthic marine algae as an indicator of the effect of marine pollution at Tagonoura Port located in the innermost part of Suruga Bay.
The materials used in this study were 2 species of Chlorophyceae, 3 species of Phaeophyceae and 6 species of Rhodophyceae.All the plants were collected along the coast of six different localities in Suruga Bay. The experiments were carried out with Differential Gas-Volumeter (Yokohama and Ichimura, 1969) under the conditions of 20°C sea water temperature and 20 klux light intensity.
The results obtained are summarized as follows:
1) In most species examined photosynthetic activity was apparently inhibited with increase of concentrations of pollutants.
2) In only one species, Enteronorpha intestinalis, collected on the coast of two different localities, a strong resistance to high concentration of pollutants was observed, and the rate of photosynthesis at concentration of 25% was approximately 3 times of that at concentration of 0%.
3) It can be said that the green algal species of Enteromorpha may be useful for assaying the pollution of sea water.
4) Photosynthesis-inhibition in algae such as Sargassum hemiphyllum, Eisenia bicyclis, Gelidiuna amansii and Hypnea japonica from the sublittoral zone was more remarkable than in those such as Ulva pertusa, Scytosiphon lomentarius and Porphyra from the intertidal zone.
