Atlantic halibut (Hippoglossus hippoglossus L.) fry mortality after transportation with focus on biological and chemical aspects

This thesis is a project finalizing Bachelor of Science degrees in the fields of biological chemistry and chemical- & environmental engineering. As the literature database for Atlantic halibut fish farming is scarce, the need for research is evident and potentially innovative. The intention for this thesis was to show initiative contacting a company within the common field of interest that is fish farming and establish a mutually positive project. As a response to inquiry, Sterling White Halibut (SWH) presented a current problem that was very intriguing and relevant in an educative regard. The thesis project was designed in collaboration with SWH. The focus areas for monitoring were biological stress and water chemistry. Hippoglossus hippoglossus fry (6.70 ± 2.35 g) was transported approximately one thousand kilometers from Rørvik to Imsland. This thesis concerns one batch of 94 186 Atlantic halibut fry, with arrival at Imsland in March 2021. Measurements were made upon arrival and for one month after delivery. SWH reports that a late onset mortality occurs after transportation of small fry sent from the hatchery to the rearing facilities. Some fry batches have endured substantial mortality which is considered caused by the transportation and transfer of fry. The complex phenomenon of late onset mortality after transportation required investigation. Water sampling and chemical analysis were performed in two stages. First stage was at arrival. Analysis of transportation water compared to receiving water presented a relatively large difference in water quality. The second stage was comprised of daily analysis of the water quality to monitor changes during the expected period of mortality. These differences were relatively minor. Biological parameters were measured at arrival and monitored afterwards on each of the three field excursions to complement the water quality data. These datasets served as the basis for the graphical- and statistical analysis. Mortality was considered the prime biological parameter of which the other data were evaluated against. Correlation (r = -0.44) between pH and mortality was discovered and 19 % of the variation observed is explained by the regression model of pH and mortality. Abrupt environmental differences in transportation water compared to receiving water was revealed, which contributes to additional stress after transportation. Stress levels were indicated by elevated blood glucose concentration and increased red blood cell (RBC) count. Late onset mortality is suggested as a consequence of stress during and after transportation, including an unsuccessful adaptation to a new environment at the rearing facilities.This thesis is a project finalizing Bachelor of Science degrees in the fields of biological chemistry and chemical- & environmental engineering. As the literature database for Atlantic halibut fish farming is scarce, the need for research is evident and potentially innovative. The intention for this thesis was to show initiative contacting a company within the common field of interest that is fish farming and establish a mutually positive project. As a response to inquiry, Sterling White Halibut (SWH) presented a current problem that was very intriguing and relevant in an educative regard. The thesis project was designed in collaboration with SWH. The focus areas for monitoring were biological stress and water chemistry. Hippoglossus hippoglossus fry (6.70 ± 2.35 g) was transported approximately one thousand kilometers from Rørvik to Imsland. This thesis concerns one batch of 94 186 Atlantic halibut fry, with arrival at Imsland in March 2021. Measurements were made upon arrival and for one month after delivery. SWH reports that a late onset mortality occurs after transportation of small fry sent from the hatchery to the rearing facilities. Some fry batches have endured substantial mortality which is considered caused by the transportation and transfer of fry. The complex phenomenon of late onset mortality after transportation required investigation. Water sampling and chemical analysis were performed in two stages. First stage was at arrival. Analysis of transportation water compared to receiving water presented a relatively large difference in water quality. The second stage was comprised of daily analysis of the water quality to monitor changes during the expected period of mortality. These differences were relatively minor. Biological parameters were measured at arrival and monitored afterwards on each of the three field excursions to complement the water quality data. These datasets served as the basis for the graphical- and statistical analysis. Mortality was considered the prime biological parameter of which the other data were evaluated against. Correlation (r = -0.44) between pH and mortality was discovered and 19 % of the variation observed is explained by the regression model of pH and mortality. Abrupt environmental differences in transportation water compared to receiving water was revealed, which contributes to additional stress after transportation. Stress levels were indicated by elevated blood glucose concentration and increased red blood cell (RBC) count. Late onset mortality is suggested as a consequence of stress during and after transportation, including an unsuccessful adaptation to a new environment at the rearing facilities

Atlantic halibut (Hippoglossus hippoglossus L.) fry mortality after transportation with focus on biological and chemical aspects

This thesis is a project finalizing Bachelor of Science degrees in the fields of biological chemistry and chemical- & environmental engineering. As the literature database for Atlantic halibut fish farming is scarce, the need for research is evident and potentially innovative. The intention for this thesis was to show initiative contacting a company within the common field of interest that is fish farming and establish a mutually positive project. As a response to inquiry, Sterling White Halibut (SWH) presented a current problem that was very intriguing and relevant in an educative regard. The thesis project was designed in collaboration with SWH. The focus areas for monitoring were biological stress and water chemistry. Hippoglossus hippoglossus fry (6.70 ± 2.35 g) was transported approximately one thousand kilometers from Rørvik to Imsland. This thesis concerns one batch of 94 186 Atlantic halibut fry, with arrival at Imsland in March 2021. Measurements were made upon arrival and for one month after delivery. SWH reports that a late onset mortality occurs after transportation of small fry sent from the hatchery to the rearing facilities. Some fry batches have endured substantial mortality which is considered caused by the transportation and transfer of fry. The complex phenomenon of late onset mortality after transportation required investigation. Water sampling and chemical analysis were performed in two stages. First stage was at arrival. Analysis of transportation water compared to receiving water presented a relatively large difference in water quality. The second stage was comprised of daily analysis of the water quality to monitor changes during the expected period of mortality. These differences were relatively minor. Biological parameters were measured at arrival and monitored afterwards on each of the three field excursions to complement the water quality data. These datasets served as the basis for the graphical- and statistical analysis. Mortality was considered the prime biological parameter of which the other data were evaluated against. Correlation (r = -0.44) between pH and mortality was discovered and 19 % of the variation observed is explained by the regression model of pH and mortality. Abrupt environmental differences in transportation water compared to receiving water was revealed, which contributes to additional stress after transportation. Stress levels were indicated by elevated blood glucose concentration and increased red blood cell (RBC) count. Late onset mortality is suggested as a consequence of stress during and after transportation, including an unsuccessful adaptation to a new environment at the rearing facilities.This thesis is a project finalizing Bachelor of Science degrees in the fields of biological chemistry and chemical- & environmental engineering. As the literature database for Atlantic halibut fish farming is scarce, the need for research is evident and potentially innovative. The intention for this thesis was to show initiative contacting a company within the common field of interest that is fish farming and establish a mutually positive project. As a response to inquiry, Sterling White Halibut (SWH) presented a current problem that was very intriguing and relevant in an educative regard. The thesis project was designed in collaboration with SWH. The focus areas for monitoring were biological stress and water chemistry. Hippoglossus hippoglossus fry (6.70 ± 2.35 g) was transported approximately one thousand kilometers from Rørvik to Imsland. This thesis concerns one batch of 94 186 Atlantic halibut fry, with arrival at Imsland in March 2021. Measurements were made upon arrival and for one month after delivery. SWH reports that a late onset mortality occurs after transportation of small fry sent from the hatchery to the rearing facilities. Some fry batches have endured substantial mortality which is considered caused by the transportation and transfer of fry. The complex phenomenon of late onset mortality after transportation required investigation. Water sampling and chemical analysis were performed in two stages. First stage was at arrival. Analysis of transportation water compared to receiving water presented a relatively large difference in water quality. The second stage was comprised of daily analysis of the water quality to monitor changes during the expected period of mortality. These differences were relatively minor. Biological parameters were measured at arrival and monitored afterwards on each of the three field excursions to complement the water quality data. These datasets served as the basis for the graphical- and statistical analysis. Mortality was considered the prime biological parameter of which the other data were evaluated against. Correlation (r = -0.44) between pH and mortality was discovered and 19 % of the variation observed is explained by the regression model of pH and mortality. Abrupt environmental differences in transportation water compared to receiving water was revealed, which contributes to additional stress after transportation. Stress levels were indicated by elevated blood glucose concentration and increased red blood cell (RBC) count. Late onset mortality is suggested as a consequence of stress during and after transportation, including an unsuccessful adaptation to a new environment at the rearing facilities

Impacts of coffee fragmented landscapes on biodiversity and microclimate with emerging monitoring technologies

Habitat fragmentation and loss are causing biodiversity declines across the globe. As biodiversity is unevenly distributed, with many hotspots located in the tropics, conserving and protecting these areas is important to preserve as many species as possible. Chapter 2 presents an overview of the Ecology of the Atlantic Forest, a highly fragmented biodiversity hotspot. A major driver of habitat fragmentation is agriculture, and in the tropics coffee is major cash crop. Developing methods to monitor biodiversity effectively without labour intensive surveys can help us understand how communities are using fragmented landscapes and better inform management practices that promote biodiversity. Acoustic monitoring offers a promising set of tools to remotely monitor biodiversity. Developments in machine learning offer automatic species detection and classification in certain taxa. Chapters 3 and 4 use acoustic monitoring surveys conducted on fragmented landscapes in the Atlantic Forest to quantify bird and bat communities in forest and coffee matrix, respectively. Chapter 3 shows that acoustic composition can reflect local avian communities. Chapter 4 applies a convolutional neural network (CNN) optimised on UK bat calls to a Brazilian bat dataset to estimate bat diversity and show how bats preferentially use coffee habitats. In addition to monitoring biodiversity, monitoring microclimate forms a key part of climate smart agriculture for climate change mitigation. Coffee agriculture is limited to the tropics, overlapping with biodiverse regions, but is threatened by climate change. This presents a challenge to countries strongly reliant on coffee exports such as Brazil and Nicaragua. Chapter 5 uses data from microclimate weather stations in Nicaragua to demonstrate that sun-coffee management is vulnerable to supraoptimal temperature exposure regardless of local forest cover or elevation.Open Acces

Discontinuous Galerkin formulation for 2D hydrodynamic modelling: trade-offs between theoretical complexity and practical convenience

In the modelling of hydrodynamics, the Discontinuous Galerkin (DG) approach constitutes a more complex and modern alternative to the well-established finite volume method. The latter retains some desired practical features for modelling hydrodynamics, such as well-balancing between spatial flux and steep topography gradients, ability to incorporate wetting and drying processes, and computational affordability. In this context, DG methods were originally devised to solve the two-dimensional (2D) Shallow Water Equations (SWE) with irregular topographies and wetting and drying, albeit at reduction in the formulation’s complexity to often being second-order accurate (DG2). The aims of this paper are: (a) to outline a so-called “slope-decoupled” formulation of a standard 2D-DG2-SWE simulator in which theoretical complexity is deliberately reduced; (b) to highlight the capabilities of the proposed slopedecoupled simulator in providing a setting where the simplifying assumptions are verified within the formulation. Both the standard and the slope-decoupled 2D-DG2-SWE models adopt 2D modal basis functions for shaping local planar DG2 solutions on quadrilateral elements, by using an average coefficient and two slope coefficients along the Cartesian coordinates. Over a quadrilateral element, the stencil of the slope-decoupled 2D-DG2 formulation is simplified to remove the interdependence of slope-coefficients for both flow and topography approximations. The fully well-balanced character the slope-decoupled 2D-DG2-SWE planar solutions is theoretically studied. The performance of the latter is compared with the standard 2D-DG2 formulation in classical simulation tests. Other tests are conducted to diagnostically verify the conservative properties of the 2D-DG2-SWE method in scenarios involving sharp topography gradients and wet and/or dry zones. The analyses conducted offer strong evidence that the proposed slope-decoupled 2D-DG2-SWE simulator is very attractive for the development of robust flood models