The effects of depth and primary density on the pigments, agar yield and fatty acids component of Gracilariopsis persica cultivation on desalination pools in Qeshm Island

The exploitation of Gracilaria macro algae for agar extraction has increased significantly in recent decades. Also in recent years seaweeds increasingly considered to search the new drugs and have been shown as a primary source of biomaterials and bioactive natural compounds. The purpose of this study is to investigate the effect 0f depth of cultivation and density of Gracilariopsis persica algae on the agar extraction, phycobiliproteins and chlorophyll a pigments and the biochemical composition of lipids fatty acids from red seaweed Gp.persics in gheshm Island concrete pond. Seedlings cultured on polyethylene threads with primary storage weight (100g and 200g density) at two depths (1m and 2m depth) ,considering three replication for each treatment during 45 days. The results of this study showed that the amount of pigments and agar increases with increasing depth and decreasing light intensity. The maximum agar yield was obtained at 2m depth and at this depth the maximum gel strength was 673 g cm-2. The amount of lipid was low it didn’t change much studied in two depth (p