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Seaweeds as a promising resource for blue economy development in Tunisia: current state, opportunities, and challenges

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Abstract

Many western countries show an increased interest in using algae in several sectors such as human food and animal feed, nutraceuticals, cosmetics and pharmaceuticals, agriculture, or bioenergy. Biomass of marine origin, and especially seaweed, is a key element for blue growth and is expected to contribute to the development of the growing European blue economy. Several Research and Development and Research and Innovation Projects result in the establishment of an emerging seaweed aquaculture in the Northern European countries. However, macroalgal cultivation and bioprocessing is still scarce in the Mediterranean area, particularly in Tunisia, where seaweeds are abundant on its coast, they remain little exploited. Ongoing projects from different research institutes focus on biological activities of macroalgae, the extraction of active compounds, and the potential uses as phycocolloids, pigments, lipids, and bioactive metabolites characterization as well as bioproduct enhancement. The results of these investigations demonstrate that macroalgae from the Tunisian coasts are a source of valuable compounds and that they can be used as a natural renewable resource suitable for a large array of industrial applications. Further to this, specific research activities on seaweed cultivation have been conducted particularly for Gracilaria and Ulva. In this paper, we highlight the potential of the seaweed sector in Tunisia in terms of biodiversity, cultivation, and bioprocessing and discuss the challenges in various sectors, i.e., biology, building capacity, technology, or policy, that currently hinder the expansion of a sustainable Tunisian seaweed industry.

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Acknowledgements

L Ktari and L Chebil Ajjabi thank the Ministry of Higher Education and Scientific Research, and the Institution of Scientific Research and Agricultural higher Education (IRESA) for the financial support. C Rebours gratefully acknowledge the Research Council of Norway, the Møre and Romsdal County Council, and Møreforsking AS for their financial support to achieve this review within the PROMAC (244244; www.promac.no) and SEAGREEN (312947) projects. JL Gómez Pinchetti thanks the financial support of the European Territorial Cooperation Program PCT-MAC 2014-2020 through the Project REBECA-CCT (MAC/1.1.B/269). O De Clerck benefits from a European Marine Biological Resource Centre Belgium/Research Foundation—Flanders Project GOH3817N.

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. National Institute of Marine Sciences and Technology (INSTM), University of Carthage, Tunis, Tunisia

    Leila Ktari & Leila Chebil Ajjabi

  2. Research Group Phycology, Department of Biology, Ghent University, 9000, Ghent, Belgium

    Olivier De Clerck

  3. Spanish Bank of Algae, Institute of Oceanography and Global Change (IOCAG), University of Las Palmas de Gran Canaria, Muelle de Taliarte S/N, 35214, Telde, Canary Islands, Spain

    Juan Luis Gómez Pinchetti

  4. Møreforsking AS, Ålesund, Norway

    Céline Rebours

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Ktari, L., Chebil Ajjabi, L., De Clerck, O. et al. Seaweeds as a promising resource for blue economy development in Tunisia: current state, opportunities, and challenges. J Appl Phycol 34, 489–505 (2022). https://doi.org/10.1007/s10811-021-02579-w

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