Alkaliphilic consortium shifting for production of phycocyanins and biochemicals

A method of making a phycocyanin product, comprising:

• culturing an alkaliphilic soda lake microbial consortium under aerobic alkaline conditions in a diurnal growth cycle to establish a cyanobacterial population containing the phycocyanin within the microbial consortium in a cultured biomass in an aerobic culture comprising a growth medium comprising from 0.25-3M Na+;
• and,
• shifting the microbial consortium, having a proportion of cyanobacteria and a proportion of non-cyanobacterial alkaliphile microbes, to a dark-phase cycle under anaerobic alkaline conditions in an anaerobic culture comprising from 0.25-3M Na+ to initiate auto-catabolic release of the phycocyanin intact from the cyanobacterial population as the proportion of cyanobacteria in the microbial consortium decreases and the proportion of non-cyanobacterial alkaliphile microbes increases in the consortium, to produce a biomass solids product and an aqueous phycocyanin product.