Algal collections in the green era

The challenges of climate change and adaptation to this change, the increasing scarcity and depletion of natural resources and the resilience to pressures resulting from the disruption of ecosystems have forced governments and international organisations to move from traditional practises to the green era and pay more attention to environmental sustainability. The green economy and the sustainable development of communities around the world have already begun since the end of the 20th century (Woodrow 2010). The significant role of algal culture collections in achieving sustainability is based on their active role as a global bioresource centre and standards organization, main developer and supplier of microalgal strains used in various areas of human life. They are a source of biological standards for comparative molecular, biochemical, taxonomic, physiological, biotechnological and ecological studies. The algal collections are also a fund of biological diversity that is important for future generations. In today's world, such microalgal hubs can help countries create the means to conserve their own genetic resources, make them available for research and thus unlock nature’s potential to provide solutions to national economic, environmental, nutrition and health problems - the algae-based bioresource cycle (Wilkie et al., 2011). Algal culture collections are not only cultivation centres but also provide the knowledge, data and foundations needed for the development of bioindustries that will lead to economic development. Such bioindustries are based on algal biomass used for: the production of third-generation biofuels, photosynthetic textiles, air purifiers, superfoods and food supplements, cosmetic products, wastewater treatment, soil fertilisers, etc.
Acknowledgements: This study is financed by the European Union-NextGenerationEU, through the National Recovery and Resilience Plan of the Republic of Bulgaria, project No BG-RRP-2.004-0008.