A production season of turbot larvae Scophthalmus maximus (Linnaeus, 1758) reared on copepods in a Danish (56°N) semi‐intensive outdoor system

Turbot were reared from yolk sack larvae to juvenile in an outdoor semi‐intensive system. Three production cycles were monitored from May to September. A pelagic food chain was established with phytoplankton, copepods and turbot larvae. Abiotic and biotic parameters of lower trophic levels together with turbot larval survival, development, prey electivity and growth were monitored. A decreasing larval survival from 18.4% in May to 13.6% in July and just 7.0% in September was observed. The overall phytoplankton and copepod abundance decreased during the productive season. The turbot larval growth showed significant differences between larvae below (isometric) and above (allometric) 7 mm. Larval fish gut content showed no differences with available prey between production cycles. Therefore, it appears that the available prey concentration is governing their growth in this outdoor system. First‐feeding turbot larvae exhibited active selection for nauplii whereas developed larvae switched to copepodites and adult copepods. Although developing turbot larva exhibited active selection towards copepod size classes, there was no evidence of selective feeding on either of the two dominant copepod species. The turbot larvae's prey ingestion was modelled together with the standing stock of copepod biomass. The model results indicated that the estimated need for daily ingestion exceeded the standing stock of copepods. Hence, the initially established food web was unable to sustain the added turbot larvae with starvation as a consequence. We therefore suggest several solutions to circumvent starvation in the semi‐intensive system.     

Identification of citrus hybrids through the combination of leaf apex morphology and SSR markers

Citrus breeding programs normally face several biological obstacles such as apomixis and polyembryony that result in a cumbersome identification of hybrid seedlings. The main purpose of this work is to describe the combined use of visual selection based on the leaf apex morphology and SSR analysis to differentiate hybrid from nucellar seedlings derived from the cross between the ‘Murcott’ tangor [Citrus reticulata Blanco × Citrus sinensis (L.) Osb.] and ‘Pêra’ sweet orange [Citrus sinensis(L.) Osb.]. A new morphological variable named leaf apex morphometric index is also described as the quantitative basis of the visual selection. The efficiency of visual selection of hybrids was tested under two growth conditions, seedlings germinated in seedbeds and in plastic tubes. Putative hybrid seedlings were also confirmed through the analysis of simple sequence repeats (SSR). The visual selection of hybrid seedlings resulted in an increase of 87.2% (p < 0.01) and 202.2% (p <0.001) in the number of correctly identified hybrids when compared to the method of random picking of seedlings in seedbeds and plastic tubes,respectively. The results indicate that the combination of visual selection and SSR analysis for the identification of hybrids derived from the cross of polyembryonic citrus cultivars will improve the accuracy of the selection,save time, and reduce the costs involved in the use of molecular markers alone in citrus breeding programs. This revised version was published online in August 2006 with corrections to the Cover Date.     

Total egg harvest by the calanoid copepod Acartia tonsa (Dana) in intensive culture – effects of high stocking densities on daily egg harvest and egg quality

Understanding the factors limiting copepod productivity in dense cultures is a prerequisite for the partial or entire replacement of Artemia and rotifers as live feed for finfish larvae. In dense cultures, high encounter rates between individuals may increase stress, cannibalism incidents and potentially trigger resting egg production. We conducted an experiment to evaluate the potential egg production and egg quality of Acartia tonsa stocked at densities ranging from 10 to >5000 ind. L^?1. Egg Production (EP), Delayed Hatching Eggs production (DHE), hatching success (HS), egg mortality and water quality were used as end points. In the present system, A. tonsa was raised at >5000 ind. L^?1 without affecting the mortality, confirming that attaining this high density in culture is possible. However, egg harvest reached an optimum of 12 000 egg L^?1 day^?1 at ~2500 ind. L^?1 indicating that increasing stocking density above this level is not of practical interest. Calculations showed that the loss in egg harvest at stocking densities <2500 ind. L^?1 is of 1.3% for every additional 100 adult copepods L^?1. The increasing adult density did not affected the proportion of DHE produced (~10% of harvest) but decreased significantly the HS, though not to a point that would be problematic in a commercial production. Understanding the biology of copepods when stocked at high density is important to improve copepod culture systems and increase egg harvest yields. Technical solutions such as the continuous separation of eggs from adults in the water column, recirculation and the continuous provision of food are seen as potential solutions.     

Plankton composition and biomass development: a seasonal study of a semi‐intensive outdoor system for rearing of turbot

Plankton food web dynamics were studied during a complete production season in a semi‐intensive land‐based facility for rearing of turbot (Scophthalmus maximus) larvae. The production season was divided into three production cycles of 3–5 weeks. Phytoplankton biomass (using chlorophyll a as biomass proxy) peaked in each production cycle. However, the maximum biomass decreased from spring (18 μg chlorophyll a L^?1) to fall (ca. 7 μg chlorophyll a L^?1), simultaneous with a decline in the concentration of dissolved nitrogen in the inoculating water. During the three production cycles, we observed decreasing copepod nauplii concentration from spring to fall in the rearing tanks. The decreasing nitrogen gave increasing carbon to chlorophyll a ratio in the seston (from 23 in spring to 73 in fall). The pool of free amino acids in seston was constant. We suggest that the decreasing nitrogen input in the inoculating water reduces the quality of the phytoplankton and thus the growth potential of the prey for fish larvae, copepods.