Welcome to the Algae Systems and Ecological Engineering Laboratory at Auburn University!

David M. Blersch, Ph.D.

Algae Systems and Ecological Engineering Laboratory

We are interested in the engineering of systems for the cultivation of phototrophic algal biofilms for water pollution control and biomass production. Systems to cultivate algal biofilms, or 'algal turfs', offer many advantages for applications in recovery of nutrients and pollutant substances in aquatic systems. We are studying the parameters that describe the overall performance yields of the algal cultivation process in a variety of applications as a way to assess the overall economic and ecological sustainability of the process. Our research interests scale from the microcsopic, such as investigating the colonization dynamics of filamentous algae on novel substratum, to the macroscopic, such as assessing the value of benthic algal cultivation for pollution control and biomass production at the watershed scale.