I sample Antarctica’s seaweed to improve human health

Nic Fleming is a freelance science writer based in Bristol, UK.

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Ekrem Cem Çankırılıgil is a fisheries engineer at the Sheep Breeding Research Institute in Bandırma, Turkey. Credit: Şebnem Çoşkun/Anadolu Agency/Getty

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Research suggests that some seaweed might have health benefits for people, including helping to protect against cancer, diabetes and other diseases. Extreme temperatures, light and water salinity can boost the levels of compounds behind these effects.

As a fisheries engineer at the Sheep Breeding Research Institute in Bandırma, Turkey, I research the chemistry of marine organisms, including seaweeds and molluscs, and their potential for farming. In this picture, taken this year, I’m collecting seaweed samples near Horseshoe Island in Antarctica on an expedition funded by the Turkish government. With our collaborators at the Çanakkale Onsekiz Mart University in Turkey, we aim to identify species, analyse their chemical compositions and determine their chemical processes that are associated with health benefits.

The only other study of seaweed diversity near the island was in 1976, which identified six species (R. L. Moe & T. E. DeLaca Antarct. J. 11, 20–24; 1976). We think we have found more than 15, including some that had been recorded only in other parts of Antarctica. Diversity near the island could have changed because climate change and glacier melt have altered light levels, brought in more fresh water and provided new nutrients.

We are analysing these samples for antioxidants, chlorophyll and other compounds — as well as proteins, lipids and amino and fatty acids — because they affect the extent of protection against disease.

Last year, we increased antioxidant compounds in Gongolaria barbata, a common brown seaweed, by changing how much light it received and the salinity of the water in which we grew it (I. Ak et al. Phycologia 61, 584–594; 2022). Seaweed extracts are already used in the production of food supplements, such as omega-3.

It might one day be possible to farm Antarctic seaweed species containing a lot of compounds that improve human wellness, just by altering growing conditions.

Nature 619, 890 (2023)

doi: https://doi.org/10.1038/d41586-023-02314-0

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