Effect of dietary protein:energy ratio on intake, growth and metabolism of juvenile green abalone Haliotis fulgens

Juvenile green abalone Haliotis rufescens were grown under laboratory conditions at 21±1 °C and fed formulated diets consisting of different protein:energy ratios (mg protein/kcal), 62, 74, 85, 100, 108, for 60 days. The level of crude protein ranged from approximately 26% to 44% while the energy content remained constant at about 4.1 kcal g⁻¹. Growth ranged from 3.63 to 12.33 mg day⁻¹. The growth of abalone fed the 100 and 108 diets was significantly greater than that of each of the other diets. Protein efficiency ratio increased as the dietary protein content increased except for the T108 diet (44% crude protein). Abalone apparently consume food to satisfy an energy requirement. Caloric expenditure due to metabolism was estimated for abalone fed diets with protein ratios of 62, 85, 100. Energy loss due to respiration did not vary appreciably among abalone fed the different diets. The proportional distribution of dietary energy into fecal, digestible, growth, and metabolic energy was estimated for abalone fed these diets. Apparent dry matter digestibility was among the lowest for abalone fed the 100 P:E diet, but growth of abalone fed this diet was significantly higher than that of each of the other treatments except the 108 diet. Unexplained energy loss to achieve balance ranged from 7% to 28.5%, some of which is probably due to differential mucus and ammonia production. Results suggest a potential for the reduction of both dietary protein and lipid without causing any adverse effects on the growth response.     

Effect of Artificial Diets on Growth,Survival and Condition of Adult Cuttlefish, <Emphasis Type="Italic">Sepia officinalis</Emphasis> Linnaeus, 1758

The effects of artificial diets on growth and body condition of adult cuttlefish, Sepia officinalis were tested in two experiments. Supplemented prepared diets (fish myofibrillar protein concentrate) were fed during a 30-day and a 21-day experiments. Growth, feeding rate and food conversion of group-reared cuttlefish were analyzed. The first of these experiments tested four artificial diets, made with increasing levels of lysine, on adult cuttlefish. According to the chemical analysis, diets 1–3 had limiting concentrations of lysine and other essential amino acids (compared to mantle composition of the cuttlefish), while diet 4 was the only one where almost all essential amino acids were present in concentrations similar or higher than the ones present in cuttlefish mantle. A second experiment was conducted by isolating 16 adult cuttlefish individually, and feeding them the same four artificial diets, in order to obtain individual data. During Experiment 1, only the diet with the best chemical score (diet 4) produced growth (p < 0.05), with a mean instantaneous growth rate (MIGR) of 0.30% wet body weight (BW) d⁻¹. Similarly, individually reared cuttlefish fed diet 4 produced the highest IGR’s (0.26, 0.38 and 0.48% BW d⁻¹) and grew larger (p < 0.01). Comparison of cuttlefish fed the artificial diets vs. thawed shrimp and unfed cuttlefish indicated that cuttlefish fed the artificial diets were in an intermediate state. Growth rates obtained with the artificial diets (<0.4% BW d⁻¹) were considerably lower compared to natural prey, live or frozen, reported by other authors.     

“Indirect selection” for genetic change: A quantitative analysis illustrated with Macrobrachium rosenbergii

“Indirect selection” is exerted on a trait indirectly, by means other than artificial selection for the trait itself. Expressions are derived for calculating the intensity of indirect selection in aquaculture environments. The calculations are illustrated with growth-rate data on M. rosenbergii from farm ponds in Thailand, and with computer-generated data which simulate measurements made during a multiple mark-recapture experiment. Indirect selection for growth is probably negligible in Thai prawn farms and hatcheries at present, but small changes in management practice could exert strong indirect selection on growth rate. One very effective change appears to be collecting broodstock as early in the production cycle as possible. Control of indirect selection may be useful for the genetic improvement of aquaculture stock, especially in developing countries and other situations where an intensive artificial selection program is not economically or biologically desirable. Like all selection programs, the probability of success is critically dependent on the genetics of the traits being selected.     

To pool or not to pool? Guidelines for pooling samples for use in surveillance testing of infectious diseases in aquatic animals

Samples from multiple animals may be pooled and tested to reduce costs of surveillance for infectious agents in aquatic animal populations. The primary advantage of pooling is increased population‐level coverage when prevalence is low (<10%) and the number of tests is fixed, because of increased likelihood of including target analyte from at least one infected animal in a tested pool. Important questions and a priori design considerations need to be addressed. Unfortunately, pooling recommendations in disease‐specific chapters of the 2018 OIE Aquatic Manual are incomplete and, except for amphibian chytrid fungus, are not supported by peer‐reviewed research. A systematic review identified only 12 peer‐reviewed aquatic diagnostic accuracy and surveillance studies using pooled samples. No clear patterns for pooling methods and characteristics were evident across reviewed studies, although most authors agreed there is a negative effect on detection. Therefore, our purpose was to review pooling procedures used in published aquatic infectious disease research, present evidence‐based guidelines, and provide simulated data examples for white spot syndrome virus in shrimp. A decision tree of pooling guidelines was developed for use by peer‐reviewed journals and research institutions for the design, statistical analysis and reporting of comparative accuracy studies of individual and pooled tests for surveillance purposes.     

Genetic variability in meiotic gynogenetic muskellunge,Esox masquinongy (Mitchell), estimated from segregation of microsatellite alleles

Muskellunge, Esox masquinongy, is an important recreational freshwater fish native to North America. Since muskellunge populations are often maintained through stocking efforts, advances in muskellunge reproductive technologies are of direct relevance to fishery enhancement. We evaluated the efficiency of inbreeding through induced meiotic diploid gynogenesis. Eggs from six female muskellunge were manually stripped and activated using ultra violet‐irradiated yellow perch, Perca flavescens, sperm. Hydrostatic pressure shocking regimes (48 263 kPa) were then applied to the eggs to prevent second polar body expulsion producing unambiguous meiotic gynogens. Six female dams and samples of 12–20 of their gynogenetic progeny were genotyped at seven polymorphic microsatellite loci. Chromosomal recombination frequencies of microsatellite loci based on retention of heterozygosity among gynogens ranged from 0.043 to 0.839 (0.576 ± 0.237). There were no statistical differences in recombination frequency among females at any of the loci. The average inbreeding coefficient (F‐value) ranged from 0.581 to 0.979, equivalent to three to fourteen generations of full‐sibling crosses respectively. The average F‐value overall was 0.712, equivalent to between five and six generations of full‐sibling crosses. Centromere map distances of the seven microsatellite loci ranged from 2.15 to 41.95 cM and meiotic gynogenesis was useful in eliminating heterozygosity at loci proximal to the centromere, but not distal. Since the age at maturity of female muskellunge is approximately 5 years, gynogenesis may pose an expeditious alternative to traditional breeding strategies for creation of homozygous pedigrees for some loci that may be outcrossed to introduce positive heterozygosity effects in the offspring.     

Use of state‐space modelling to identify ecological covariates associated with trends in pinniped demography

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Logging pattern and landscape changes over the last century at the boreal and deciduous forest transition in Eastern Canada

Forestry practices associated with the industrial era (since ~1900) have altered the natural disturbance regimes and greatly impacted the world’s forests. We quantified twentieth century logging patterns and regional scale consequences in three sub-boreal forest landscapes of Eastern Canada (117,000, 49,400 and 92,300 ha), comparing forestry maps depicting age and forest cover types for early industrial (1930) and present-day (2000) conditions. Results were similar for the three landscapes, indicating large-scale forest change during the twentieth century. In 1930, previous logging activities had been concentrated in the lowlands and along the main hydrographical network, as compared to a more even distribution over the landscapes in 2000, reflecting a decreasing influence of the environmental constraints on forest harvesting. In 1930, old-aged forests (>100 years) accounted for more than 75% of the unlogged areas of the three landscapes, as compared to less than 15% for the present-day conditions. Logging practices have thus inverted the stand age distribution of the landscapes that are currently dominated by young and regenerating stands. The 1930 forest cover types showed a clear relationship with elevation, with conifers located in the lowlands and mixed and deciduous stands restricted to the upper slopes. Between 1930 and 2000, 58–64% of the conifer areas transformed to mixed and deciduous forests, such that no clear altitudinal relationships remained in 2000. We conclude that twentieth century logging practices have strongly altered the preindustrial vegetation patterns in our study area, to the point that ecosystem-based management strategies should be developed to restore conifer dominance, altitudinal gradients, as well as the irregular structure inspired from old forest stands.     

Upscaling as ecological information transfer: a simple framework with application to Arctic ecosystem carbon exchange

Transferring ecological information across scale often involves spatial aggregation, which alters information content and may bias estimates if the scaling process is nonlinear. Here, a potential solution, the preservation of the information content of fine-scale measurements, is highlighted using modeled net ecosystem exchange (NEE) of an Arctic tundra landscape as an example. The variance of aggregated normalized difference vegetation index (NDVI), measured from an airborne platform, decreased linearly with log(scale), resulting in a linear relationship between log(scale) and the scale-wise modeled NEE estimate. Preserving three units of information, the mean, variance and skewness of fine-scale NDVI observations, resulted in upscaled NEE estimates that deviated less than 4% from the fine-scale estimate. Preserving only the mean and variance resulted in nearly 23% NEE bias, and preserving only the mean resulted in larger error and a change in sign from CO₂ sink to source. Compressing NDVI maps by 70–75% using wavelet thresholding with the Haar and Coiflet basis functions resulted in 13% NEE bias across the study domain. Applying unique scale-dependent transfer functions between NDVI and leaf area index (LAI) decreased, but did not remove, bias in modeled flux in a smaller expanse using handheld NDVI observations. Quantifying the parameters of statistical distributions to preserve ecological information reduces bias when upscaling and makes possible spatial data assimilation to further reduce errors in estimates of ecological processes across scale.     

Effects of cage netting colour and density on the skin pigmentation and stress response of Australian snapper Pagrus auratus (Bloch & Schneider, 1801)

The unnaturally dark pigmentation of cultured Australian snapper Pagrus auratus can be improved through dietary astaxanthin supplementation and by holding fish in tanks with a white background. The practical application of these laboratory‐based findings was examined with two experiments to establish if the advantages of transferring fish to light coloured tanks before harvest could be achieved on‐farm using white cages and to determine the effects of fish density on skin colour. For the first experiment, snapper (mean TL=29.7 cm) were transferred from a commercial snapper sea cage to black or white netted cages and fed diets supplemented with unesterified astaxanthin (supplied as Lucantin^® Pink, BASF) at 0 or 39 mg kg^?1 for 42 days. Skin colour was measured using the CIE (black–white), (green–red), (blue–yellow) colour scale. Snapper held in white netting cages became significantly lighter (higher ) than snapper held in black cages; however, values were not as high as previous laboratory‐based studies in which snapper were held in white plastic‐lined cages. Snapper fed astaxanthin displayed significantly greater and values, and total carotenoid concentrations after 42 days. In addition, total carotenoids were higher in fish from black than white cages. The second experiment was designed to investigate whether density reduced the improvements in skin colour achieved by holding fish in white coloured cages and whether cage colour affected stress. Snapper (mean weight=435 g) were acclimated to black cages and fed 39 mg kg^?1 astaxanthin for 44 days before transferring to black or white plastic‐lined cages at 14 (low), 29 (mid) or 45 (high) kg m^?3 for 7 days after which time skin colour, plasma cortisol and plasma glucose concentrations were measured. Skin lightness () was greater in snapper transferred to white plastic‐lined cages with the lightest coloured fish obtained from the lowest density after 7 days. Density had no effect on plasma cortisol or glucose levels after 7 days, although plasma cortisol was elevated in snapper from black cages. For improved skin colouration we recommend feeding unesterified astaxanthin at 39 mg kg^?1 for approximately 6 weeks and transferring snapper to white plastic‐lined cages or similar at low densities for short periods before harvest rather than producing fish in white netting sea cages subject to biofouling.