Extracts of seaweeds used as biostimulants on land and sea crops—an efficacious, phyconomic, circular blue economy: with special reference to Ascophyllum (brown) and Kappaphycus (red) seaweeds

Abstract

Abstract Most of the world’s seaweed-derived extracts used for their biostimulatory/bioeffector properties for plants (i.e., abiotic and biotic stress reduction) are manufactured from brown algae, generally harvested from wild populations, or collected as storm-cast (e.g., Ascophyllum, Durvillaea, Ecklonia, Laminaria/Saccharina, Sargassum, etc.). Extracts of seaweeds have been applied for their phyconomic activities, including the micropropagation and cultivation of the red seaweed Kappaphycus alvarezii. These uses are increasingly important for the future success of sustainable, global, marine (blue) circular economies whereby applications of extracts have demonstrable biostimulatory/bioeffector properties for the benefits of mass cultivated, commercial seaweeds, thereby mirroring their use for land plants.