Effects of Industrial Effluents Containing Organic Materials such as Dyestuff on the Growth of Several Species of Marine Phytoplankton

Abstract

Dokai Bay (Kitakyushu City, Japan) is classified as an extremely enutrophic area; it receives various industrial waste waters. Four kinds of industrial effluents, three from the processes of producing dyestuff, coke, vegetable oil and fat, and the fourth from secondary sewage treatment facilities, are the main sources of the organic pollution of this bay.
In the cases of five species and strains of marine phytoplanktonm cultured by the medium containing three of these effluents not sewage effluent at the concentrations of 0.01, 0.1, 1.0, and 10 percent, the growth of Skeletonema costatum and Olisthodiscus sp., which cause red tides in Dokai Bay, were stimulated at the early logarithmic phase by 1.2 to 2.6 times compared with those of their controls. And maximum cell numbers of two strains of S. costatum and two strains of Olisthodiscus sp. which were isolated from Dokai Bay and the other seas increased by 1.2 to 14.6 times compared with those of their controls. In the case of the effluent of the secondary treated sewage, the cell numbers of most species and strains of phytoplankton tested increased at both the early logarithmic and the stationary phase. S. costatum and Olisthodiscus sp., which were isolated from Dokai Bay. were more tolerant of higher concentrations of matters contained in the three industrial effluents than were the other three species and strains.