Multi-species cultures often outperform monocultures in terms of biomass production. This research will
investigate the ability of multi-species cultures of algae to determine the species composition and diversity that
attains the highest rate of biomass production, the composition most resilient to disturbances, such as fouling
by bacteria, and greatest temporal stability in yield. Algae are well known for their high amino acid content,
and are thus strong candidates for commercial biofuels production, however a key problem has been identifying
high yield and high lipid producing species. The problem lies in the fact that species of algae which produce
high lipid yields are typically slow growing, compared to those with lower lipid yields. Using microalgal
species collected from several habitats, specifically for lipid content and high yield, we will conduct a
combinatorial biodiversity experiment to test the performance (rate of biomass production, resilience to
fouling, temporal stability) of monocultures of algae as well as combinations of 2, 4, 8, and 16 species to
determine the species composition and biodiversity with the highest performance. This research will contribute
to our understanding of overyielding in algal communities and will be used to determine robust multi-species
mixtures for use in algal bioreactors.