Research development on resource utilization of green tide algae from the Southern Yellow Sea

Since 2007, the Yellow Sea has undergone a large-scale outbreak of green tide for 15 years. The large biomass of green tide has caused great economic losses to Shandong and Jiangsu Province. The monitoring data in the recent years indicated that the dominant algae in the Southern Yellow Sea (SYS) was a special ecological type of Ulva species (Ulva prolifera). In order to make rational use of green tide algae and avoid the waste of biological resources, the achievements in the research and technical development on the resource utilization of green tide algae were systematically introduced. Moreover, the utilization and development of U. prolifera, such as food, beauty products, feed or feed additives, fertilizer, energy and papermaking engineering, were summarized. In addition, solutions to reduce the losses caused by the outbreak of green tide algae were also proposed.