Microbials play a vital role in aquaculture, particularly concerning productivity, nutrient cycling, animal welfare, water quality, and disease control. However, the understanding of microbial ecology in RAS is limited. Gaining a better understanding of the microbial community structure within RAS could allow managers to create a microbial balance that would increase fish health, water quality, and production while suppressing the growth of harmful microorganisms. In this project, we aim to study a) the spatial and temporal dynamics of microbial communities within and between farms, b) microbial-microbial interactions, and c) how community structure changes in response to disruptive daily activities (e.g., cleaning, stocking, etc.) using a combintation of sequencing methods. What is the microbial community dynamics in fish aquaculture?
Funded by SNSF grant #315230_204838/1 "MiCo4Sys"
Project team: Jessica Rieder (PhD student), Prof. Dr. Irene Adrian-Kalchhauser
A close collaboration with Dr. Adamantia Kapopoulou (bioinformatics) and Prof. Dr. Claudia Bank from the Theoretical Ecology research group at the Institute for Ecology and Evolution
Publications:
Rieder et al, Metagenomics and metabarcoding experimental choices and their impact on microbial community characterization in freshwater recirculating aquaculture systems, 2023, Env Microbiome
