From seaweed waste to plant biostimulant

Seaweed extracts have shown promising effects as alternative bio-stimulants improving plant resistance to pathogens by upregulating plant immune systems, as well as plant performance and growth. However, results in the literature are not convincing and biased by the use of commercial products, and scarce knowledge about the bioactive components in the extracts. This underlines the need for more scientific and underpinning knowledge to understand the mechanisms behind the effects of the different seaweed components spanning from poly- and oligosaccharides to phytohormones, proteins and phenolics.
In the current project we will establish a collaboration across three ST departments including experts from horticulture, marine ecology, chemistry, pathology and plant genetics focusing on the value of chemical compounds from marine products as bio-stimulants in horticultural production. Our scientific aim is to identify specific components from seaweed and seaweed waste that can have commercial value in plant production. The collaboration will establish unique knowledge across ST offering a high degree of synergy with the potential to form new ideas in both applied and basic research. This will highly support our business-oriented aim, which is to establish new robust collaborations across the whole value-chain from seaweed waste to commercial plant biostimulants, through knowledge exchange workshops with Industry and allocated time for writing applications.
Funding: Synergy grant from AU-ST (Industrikontaktskabende forskningsaktiviteter)
Colaborators: AU-BIOS-genetik, AU-BIOS-Marin, AU-Kemi