Bioflocs Technology in Freshwater Aquaculture: Variations in Carbon Sources and Carbon-to-Nitrogen Ratios

Aquaculture is one of the fastest food-producing sectors contributing half of the food fish destined for human consumption. Nevertheless, aquaculture production still needs to increase to fill the gap in supply and demand for fish, as the capture fisheries are stagnating over the years. Therefore, intensification of aquaculture production systems by increasing inputs such as feed has been devised as an alternative. On the other hand, intensive aquaculture has been associated with concerns related to environmental pollution in the past decades. Moreover, the increased cost of feed ingredients for aquaculture species has hampered the intensification of the sector. Therefore, alternative production systems such as biofloc technology were developed to mitigate the environmental impacts of intensive aquaculture and also to produce extra feed for cultured organisms. Due to their omnivorous feeding habit and tolerance to higher levels of suspended solids, freshwater finfishes have been the most cultured species in this system. The organic carbon sources used in the biofloc system are agricultural and industrial by-products which are cheap and readily available, making the technology economically feasible. C:N ratios of 10, 15, and 20 have been the most applied C:N ratios in the culture of freshwater aquaculture finfishes covered in this review

Streamlining climate change, climate risk management in Agriculture, climate information services, and climate-smart agriculture innovations into undergraduate university curriculum modules in Ethiopia

Ethiopia, as is the case for other African countries, is a disproportionately higher risk of adverse consequences of climate change. The country has a high risk of hydrometeorological hazards and natural disasters. Its vulnerability is further exacerbated due to the high poverty level and its dependence on key sectors most likely affected by climate change: agriculture, water, tourism, and forestry. The country is considered a climate hotspot where climate change poses grave threats to human well-being and natural environments. The accelerating pace of climate change in the region is invariably being felt through increased extreme weather and variability, which affects the frequency, intensity, spatial distribution, duration and timing of severe weather and climate events. The changes in the frequency and severity of extreme climate events and the increasing variability of weather patterns result in substantial challenges for both human and natural systems. The major and almost exclusive livelihood activities of rural Ethiopia are crop production, livestock production, natural resource extraction, and only less than a small percentage engaged in off-farm activities

Climate Basics, Climate Information Service, Climate Risk Management Training Guide

Climate Basics, Climate Information Service, Climate Risk Management Training Guid

Inclusion of ‘Climate Basics’ Course into Ethiopia Undergraduate Program is Critical to Build Climate Resilient Economy and Society

▪ The gap analyses on undergraduate curricula revealed that the existing Higher Education Institutes programs remained far behind the expected level of integration of Climate Change Education; ▪ The current educational road map, which has proposed critical courses for the first year of the undergraduate program, failed to include the "Climate Basics" course that could offer these students foundational climate science knowledge and tools needed to analyze climate-related risks while maximizing climate change opportunities; ▪ The inclusion of "Climate Basics" as a stand-alone course plays a critical role in broadening the understanding of undergraduate students on various national and international climate discourses

Climate Smart Agriculture (CSA) Training Guide

Agriculture, as the backbone of the Ethiopian economy, contributes roughly 40% of GDP, more than 75% of employment, and 80% of foreign exchange earnings (FAO 2021). Ethiopian agriculture is heavily reliant on natural rainfall, with irrigation used on only about 5% of total cultivated land (USAID 2021). As a result, the sector is highly vulnerable to climate change. Climate change endangers the country's agriculture development, natural resources, biodiversity conservation, and government poverty-reduction efforts. Climate change-related impacts such as food insecurity, malnutrition, poverty, biodiversity loss, and loss of livelihood are deeply intertwined and continue to be the country's primary development challenges. In 2021/2022, climate change has caused Ethiopia to suffer one of its worst droughts that has ravaged vast parts of the country. The drought has ravaged livestock and wildlife resources. Future prediction suggest that Ethiopia will continue to suffer from climate change related problems. Thus action is needed to address problem

Integrating Climate Basics, Climate Information Service, Climate Risk Management and Climate Smart Agriculture into the undergraduate agriculture Curriculum in Ethiopian Higher Education

Agriculture contributes about 40% to the country’s GDP, more than 75% to employment, and 80% to foreign exchange earnings of the Ethiopia’s economy. However, climate change poses a serious risk to the sector. On the other hand, agriculture is a major contributor (i.e., about 55%) of the country’s greenhouse gas emission. To address the strong and bidirectional interrelationships between climate change and agriculture, the agricultural sector needs to transform in a climate-smart way. Climate change education will have paramount importance for tackling the problems associated with climate change through generating climate smart technologies for the enhancement of sustainable agricultural production and biodiversity conservation. Climate Change Educations (CCE) and trainings have long been recognized by the national CCE strategy (2017-2030), United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change, the Paris Climate Change Agreement, and the Sustainable Development Goals of the United Nations (Agenda 2030) as key tools to unravel the complex and multi-sectoral challenges induced/posed by climate change. Thus, specifically, including the concepts of Climate Information Service (CIS) Climate Risk Management (CRM) and Climate smart agriculture (CSA) in the existing climate related courses is critical to build climate resilient agricultural sector in Ethiopia. Thus, Accelerating Impacts of CGIAR Climate Research for Africa (AICCRA) in collaboration with Ethiopian Higher Educations initiated to integrate the concept of CIS and CSA in the agricultural program in Ethiopia. Therefore, this document, explore if there is a gap between climate related course contents and the current CIS, CRM and CSA knowledge and innovations to addresses climate related agricultural challenges in ten undergraduate agricultural curricula of Ethiopian Higher Education Institutes. Ten climate related course descriptions were content analyzed to analyze gaps related to the concepts of CIS, CRM and CSA. The study found that there were gaps between the current curriculum and the desired knowledge and innovation of CIS, CRM and CSA to addresses the current and emerging climate change challenges in the agricultural sector. These results emphasize the need for curriculum review and reform to ensure CIS, CRM and CSA knowledge and innovations equipping the university graduates with comprehensive knowledge of climate change

Integrating Climate Products in the Existing Undergraduate Curricula: An Approach to Respond to Climate Change through Climate Education

Climate change is real, and the severity of the problem is critical in developing countries where agriculture is the backbone of the economy. The agricultural sector in Ethiopia is highly climate dependent. More than 95% of farmed land grows crops under rain-fed agriculture. Given continually increasing climate change trends and variability, Ethiopia is expected to get hotter in the foreseeable future. This situation will increase small farm households' vulnerability to climate-related shocks that may induce food insecurity, malnutrition, diet-related non-communicable diseases, and large-scale displacements. Since there is no vaccine for climate change, equipping next-generation agricultural science graduates with the concepts of Climate Information Services (CIS) and Climate-Smart Agriculture (CSA) is one of the best ways to address climate change related challenges and envision knowledge-based innovative practices that strengthen adaptation to climate change and leverage mitigation actions. Climate Change Education (CCE) and trainings have long been recognized by the national CCE strategy (2017-2030), the United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change, the Paris Climate Change Agreement, and the Sustainable Development Goals of the United Nations (Agenda 2030) as key tools to unravel the complex and multi-sectorial challenges induced/posed by climate change. Thus, Accelerating Impacts of CGIAR Climate Research for Africa (AICCRA), in collaboration with Ethiopian Higher Education, initiated the integration of the concept of CIS and CSA in the agricultural program in Ethiopia. Demand was created among Ethiopian public universities by engaging university vice presidents, Professionals from agriculture and climate sciences. Through consultation workshops and discussions with university management, it was noted that integrating climate products as a sub-chapter and case studies in the existing curriculum is one of the strategies to respond to climate change through education. To implement the integration of climate products (CIS, CSA, CRMA and CB) in the existing curricula, a committee was named to collect the agriculture curricula, execute gap analyses and recommend the integration of CP in the existing curriculum. A draft document was produced and circulated among committees, and the comments were received. The gap analyses revealed that there were 11 climate-related courses offered in 10 departments in the Undergraduate program. The courses were either shallowly addressed or do not address climate products in the curricula. This has necessitated integrating the existing curriculum with climate products to contribute to the efforts of climate education, ensuring the relevance and quality of education. A validation workshop was organized, and the findings of the gap analyses and gap-filling recommendations were presented to university representatives drawn from 27 Universities. Comments in the validation workshop were included, and a final integrated curriculum was approved. A document that integrated climate products were produced and passed to the universities, and action points and a timeline was established for implementation. It was recommended that incorporating CP in the curricula be extended to other disciplines (e.g., health, Water Engineering etc.). It was also suggested to extend the experience to PG programs of all disciplines coupled with strong capacity-building efforts for teaching staff. It was also recommended that a standalone, common course and credited courses should be offered to all University students to advance climate education and respond to climate change

Arthrospira (Spirulina’) strains from four continents are resolved into only two clusters, based on amplified ribosomal DNA restriction analysis of the internally transcribed spacer. FEMS

Abstract We present the results of a phylogenetic study, based on amplified ribosomal DNA restriction analysis of the rDNA operon, of 37 Arthrospira (`Spirulina') cultivated clonal strains from four continents. In addition, duplicates from different culture collections or markedly different morphotypes of particular strains established as clonal cultures were treated as separate entries, resulting in a total of 51 tested cultures. The strain Spirulina laxissima SAG 256.80 was included as outgroup. The 16S rRNA genes appeared too conserved for discrimination of the strains by amplified ribosomal DNA restriction analysis, and thus the internally transcribed spacer was selected as molecular taxonomic marker. The internally transcribed spacer sequences situated between the 16S and the 23S rRNA were amplified by polymerase chain reaction and yielded amplicons of about 540 bp. Direct use of cells for polymerase chain reaction seemed to inhibit the amplification reaction. This was overcome by the design of a crude lysis protocol and addition of bovine serum albumin in the polymerase chain reaction mix.The amplicons were digested with four restriction enzymes (EcoRV, HhaI, HinfI, MseI) and the banding patterns obtained were analyzed. Cluster analysis showed the separation of all the strains into two main clusters. No clear relationships could be observed between this division into two clusters and the geographic origin of the strains, or their designation in the culture collections, or their morphology.

Seasonal variation in the nutrient profile of Arthrospira fusiformis biomass harvested from an Ethiopian soda lake, Lake Chitu

The extent of seasonal variation in the nutrient profile of Arthrospira biomass harvested from Lake Chitu was investigated to evaluate the variability of the quality of the product over a period of a year. Protein content varied from 47.9 to 55.7% for wet season biomass samples and from 39.2 to 40.8% for dry season samples. Dry season samples were characterized by relatively higher carbohydrate values (38.0–41.3%). Higher proportion of amino acids and unsaturated fatty acids were recorded for biomass harvested in wet season. Similarly, higher contents of phytonutrients (pigments) were recorded for wet season biomass samples: chlorophyll a (8.2–10.3 mg g−1), phycobiliproteins (104.1–120.7 mg g−1), total carotenoids (3.17–4.31 mg g−1), and β-carotene (1.24–1.61 mg g−1). The contents of Na and K were higher for a dry season biomass whereas other major (Ca, P, Mg) and trace (Mn, Fe, Cu, Zn, Se) minerals were found relatively in higher quantities in a wet season biomass. The nutritional composition of Arthrospira from Lake Chitu was found to be relatively comparable to that found in commercial Arthrospira products in the market. The significance of the findings is discussed in relation to potential sustainable production of Arthrospira biomass from this lake

Global, regional, and national under-5 mortality, adult mortality, age-specific mortality, and life expectancy, 1970–2016: a systematic analysis for the Global Burden of Disease Study 2016

BACKGROUND: Detailed assessments of mortality patterns, particularly age-specific mortality, represent a crucial input that enables health systems to target interventions to specific populations. Understanding how all-cause mortality has changed with respect to development status can identify exemplars for best practice. To accomplish this, the Global Burden of Diseases, Injuries, and Risk Factors Study 2016 (GBD 2016) estimated age-specific and sex-specific all-cause mortality between 1970 and 2016 for 195 countries and territories and at the subnational level for the five countries with a population greater than 200 million in 2016. METHODS: We have evaluated how well civil registration systems captured deaths using a set of demographic methods called death distribution methods for adults and from consideration of survey and census data for children younger than 5 years. We generated an overall assessment of completeness of registration of deaths by dividing registered deaths in each location-year by our estimate of all-age deaths generated from our overall estimation process. For 163 locations, including subnational units in countries with a population greater than 200 million with complete vital registration (VR) systems, our estimates were largely driven by the observed data, with corrections for small fluctuations in numbers and estimation for recent years where there were lags in data reporting (lags were variable by location, generally between 1 year and 6 years). For other locations, we took advantage of different data sources available to measure under-5 mortality rates (U5MR) using complete birth histories, summary birth histories, and incomplete VR with adjustments; we measured adult mortality rate (the probability of death in individuals aged 15-60 years) using adjusted incomplete VR, sibling histories, and household death recall. We used the U5MR and adult mortality rate, together with crude death rate due to HIV in the GBD model life table system, to estimate age-specific and sex-specific death rates for each location-year. Using various international databases, we identified fatal discontinuities, which we defined as increases in the death rate of more than one death per million, resulting from conflict and terrorism, natural disasters, major transport or technological accidents, and a subset of epidemic infectious diseases; these were added to estimates in the relevant years. In 47 countries with an identified peak adult prevalence for HIV/AIDS of more than 0·5% and where VR systems were less than 65% complete, we informed our estimates of age-sex-specific mortality using the Estimation and Projection Package (EPP)-Spectrum model fitted to national HIV/AIDS prevalence surveys and antenatal clinic serosurveillance systems. We estimated stillbirths, early neonatal, late neonatal, and childhood mortality using both survey and VR data in spatiotemporal Gaussian process regression models. We estimated abridged life tables for all location-years using age-specific death rates. We grouped locations into development quintiles based on the Socio-demographic Index (SDI) and analysed mortality trends by quintile. Using spline regression, we estimated the expected mortality rate for each age-sex group as a function of SDI. We identified countries with higher life expectancy than expected by comparing observed life expectancy to anticipated life expectancy on the basis of development status alone. FINDINGS: Completeness in the registration of deaths increased from 28% in 1970 to a peak of 45% in 2013; completeness was lower after 2013 because of lags in reporting. Total deaths in children younger than 5 years decreased from 1970 to 2016, and slower decreases occurred at ages 5-24 years. By contrast, numbers of adult deaths increased in each 5-year age bracket above the age of 25 years. The distribution of annualised rates of change in age-specific mortality rate differed over the period 2000 to 2016 compared with earlier decades: increasing annualised rates of change were less frequent, although rising annualised rates of change still occurred in some locations, particularly for adolescent and younger adult age groups. Rates of stillbirths and under-5 mortality both decreased globally from 1970. Evidence for global convergence of death rates was mixed; although the absolute difference between age-standardised death rates narrowed between countries at the lowest and highest levels of SDI, the ratio of these death rates-a measure of relative inequality-increased slightly. There was a strong shift between 1970 and 2016 toward higher life expectancy, most noticeably at higher levels of SDI. Among countries with populations greater than 1 million in 2016, life expectancy at birth was highest for women in Japan, at 86·9 years (95% UI 86·7-87·2), and for men in Singapore, at 81·3 years (78·8-83·7) in 2016. Male life expectancy was generally lower than female life expectancy between 1970 and 2016, an