Originally Posted by anthropic
Originally Posted by John Kruid
Any updates on this? I believe PK do so well with Chara because of it's high calcium content. They need the calcium for their shells or exoskeleton if that's the right word.


That's what Bob Lusk said when I asked why PK did so much better with Chara than Nitella, even though they look almost identical. He also noted that that 50 percent increase in BG biomass with PK shrimp observed by Dr Swingle was in unfed pond. Artificial feeding would likely reduce PK positive effects somewhat, though they are still a plus.

Frank, I don't know if this is the reason, but Chara hosts a symbiotic periphitic nitrogen fixing cyanobacteria. This is true of all Chara species as far as I know. This adds enough nitrogen to rice paddies to produce rice indefinitely without fertilization. I think it may at least contribute to Chara's superiority over nitella.

It isn't what we don't know that gives us trouble, it's what we know that ain't so - Will Rogers