Screening of <em>G</em><em>racilaria canaliculata</em> as seed stock based on physico-chemical properties of agar for cultivation

Abstract

<em>Gracilaria canaliculata</em> is an indigenous economically important agarophyte was studied to identify the superior biomass which can be used as seed stock for cultivation. Analysis of variance for agar properties showed significant difference (<em>p</em>&lt;0.05) in gelling temperature and melting temperature within all samples. The outliers, Gc4-Kilakarai sample showed at much higher distances in rescaled distance cluster combine (25) among the groups. <em>Gracilaria canaliculata</em> collected from Gc4-Kilakarai is superior in biomass based morphological and physico-chemical properties of Agar. It can be utilized as a potential source of seed stock for farming in open sea.