In the published article, there was an error in Table 4 as published. In row 2 of this table on ‘organic onions’, the citation was displayed as “Cordeiro E. C. et al., 2022; Cordeiro M. R. C. et al., 2022”. The correct citation is “Cordeiro, E. C. et al., 2022”. The corrected Table 4 appears below.
Table 4
| Crops | Study findings |
|---|---|
| Maize, wheat | Key parameters like germination rate and plant height roughly doubled (Uysal et al., 2015) |
| Organic onions | Enhanced plant growth and delivered yield increases of 28–40% (Cordeiro E. C. et al., 2022) |
| Wheat | Boosted plant dry weight by 7–33% and grain weight by 6–8%; enhanced mineral content (Renuka et al., 2016) |
| Leafy vegetables | Strongly enhanced growth with effects comparable to chemical fertilizer (Wuang et al., 2016) |
| Corn | One microalgae biofertiliser significantly increased plant growth while two others decreased it (Ekinci et al., 2019) |
| Rice | Significantly raised yields but was most effective when used together with chemical fertilisers (Jha and Prasad, 2006) |
Efficacy of microalgae-based biofertilizers on crops.
In the published article, there was an error in Table 5 as published. The final row of this table on ‘watercress, wheat’ included incorrect percentages, though these did not change the pertinence of the source cited. This text read “Two microalgae biostimulants boosted growth of watercress (77-238%) and wheat (70-98%)”. It should read “Two microalgae biostimulants boosted germination of watercress by 48–175% and of wheat by 84–98%.” The corrected Table 5 appears below.
Table 5
| Crops | Study findings |
|---|---|
| Organic tomatoes | Doubled key parameters like fruits per plant and total soluble sugars while also improving factors like plant height (Suchithra et al., 2022) |
| Watercress | Boosted watercress germination by 40% and plant hormonal activity by 60–187%, with stimulant effects strongest at low concentrations (Navarro-López et al., 2020) |
| Seed spice crops | Increased root and shoot length by 30–50% and gave a two- to three-fold increase in the “vigour index” of plants, which combines growth and germination rates (Kumar et al., 2013) |
| Wheat | Two microalgae strains were found to boost germination by 30 to 147%, but stimulant effects were strongest at low concentrations, notably 0.2 g/L (Viegas et al., 2021a) |
| Watercress, wheat | Two microalgae biostimulants boosted germination of watercress by 48–175% and of wheat by 84–98% (Viegas et al., 2021b) |
Efficacy of microalgae-based biostimulants on crops.
In the published article, there was an error in Table 6 as published. In row 4 concerning ‘water stress’, the impact of biostimulants on well-watered plants was mistakenly overstated. The relevant text reads “On well-watered plants biostimulants more than doubled root length, leaf number and leaf area…”. It should read “On well-watered plants biostimulants significantly boosted root length, leaf number and leaf area…”. The corrected Table 6 appears below.
Table 6
| Threat | Study findings |
|---|---|
| Drought, heat, salinity | Van Oosten et al. (2017) reviewed evidence on whether biostimulants could help crops tolerate abiotic stresses and found numerous studies suggesting they can help crops cope with drought, heat and salinity, but only a few of the biostimulants considered were based on microalgae. |
| Heat, drought | Santini et al. (2021) tested spirulina-based biostimulants on grapevines facing heat stress and drought and observed greater tolerance of such conditions resulting in higher berry weight (+11%) |
| Drought | Martini et al. (2021) tested chlorella-based biostimulants on maize plants and observed greater root development and accumulation of microelements in plant tissue, resulting in enhanced tolerance to nitrogen deficiency and improved resistance to drought stress. |
| Water stress | Oancea et al. (2013) tested nannochloris-based biostimulants on well-watered and water-stressed tomato plants. On well-watered plants biostimulants significantly boosted root length, leaf number and leaf area, while on water-stressed plants they alleviated the adverse effects of water stress on root development and strongly mitigated adverse effects on plant height. |
| Water stress | Mancuso et al. (2006) tested a microalgae extract as a biostimulant on grape plants and found it increased leaf water potential and stomatal conductance under drought stress. |
| Salinity | Abd El-Baky et al. (2010) tested spirulina and chlorella extracts on wheat plants irrigated with seawater and found they helped the plants cope with salinity while also sharply enhancing the nutritional profile of wheat grains, including their protein content and antioxidant capacity. |
| Salinity | Guzmán-Murillo et al. (2013) tested two microalgal extracts on bell pepper seeds facing salt stress and observed longer roots and lower stress effects, resulting in substantially higher germination rates. |
Examples of studies that explored aspects of these technologies pertinent to climate resilience.
The authors apologize for these errors and state that they do not change the scientific conclusions of the article in any way.
Statements
Publisher’s note
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Summary
Keywords
climate change, food supply, small-scale farmers, agri-food technologies, future foods, microalgae, climate resilience, climate change mitigation
Citation
Siedenburg J (2023) Corrigendum: Could microalgae offer promising options for climate action via their agri-food applications?. Front. Sustain. Food Syst. 7:1182995. doi: 10.3389/fsufs.2023.1182995
Received
09 March 2023
Accepted
13 March 2023
Published
04 April 2023
Volume
7 - 2023
Edited and reviewed by
Liming Ye, Ghent University, Belgium
Updates
Copyright
© 2023 Siedenburg.
This is an open-access article distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution License (CC BY). The use, distribution or reproduction in other forums is permitted, provided the original author(s) and the copyright owner(s) are credited and that the original publication in this journal is cited, in accordance with accepted academic practice. No use, distribution or reproduction is permitted which does not comply with these terms.
*Correspondence: Jules Siedenburg j.siedenburg@uea.ac.uk
This article was submitted to Land, Livelihoods and Food Security, a section of the journal Frontiers in Sustainable Food Systems
Disclaimer
All claims expressed in this article are solely those of the authors and do not necessarily represent those of their affiliated organizations, or those of the publisher, the editors and the reviewers. Any product that may be evaluated in this article or claim that may be made by its manufacturer is not guaranteed or endorsed by the publisher.