Scientists from Japan and China are exploring the use of the brown seaweed, Undaria pinnatifida, known as wakame as a means to extract organic and inorganic pollutants in seawater. After culturing wakame in polluted seawater, it may then be used as a fertilizer,; thus, the composting process could be an effective means of degrading wakame into a useful form and so recycling organic substances containing C, N and P from seawater.

To accelerate the composting process, a novel marine bacterium, identified as a Halomonas species may help, researchers say. Partial DNA analysis helped identify the active species isolated from the seaweeds in Awaji Island, Japan, and that the bacteria grows well even at high salt (sodium chloride) concentrations and can reduce the total organic components, including pollutant content, of the seaweed significantly within a week.

The study has been published in the International Journal of Biotechnology.

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