Clarifying the relationship between salmon farm nutrient loads and changes in macroalgal community structure/ distribution (Existing Student Support)

Funded Activity Summary

This project provides research support for 2 PhD students - enabling them to target their studies to issues relevant to the local salmon farming industry in particular the need for research on “Nutrient Production” identified in TSGA research priorities (2011).
Growth of salmon farming in SE Tasmania is currently limited by a feed input cap. This has arisen as a result of concerns that increased nutrients associated with salmon farming may be affecting local water quality. In addition there have been anecdotal reports that changes in macroalgal community structure, and in particular proliferation of nuisance algae species (i.e. Ulva), are related to the expansion of local salmon farming operations.
These PhD projects in combination will specifically evaluate the response of macroalgal communities to changing nutrient and environmental conditions and the implications of this for local and system wide nutrient load management.
Scott Hadley is looking to evaluate the potential to mitigate/ offset nutrient loads using target species deployment and will look at testing scenarios in a model environment to establish spatial and temporal optima for such mitigation strategies.
Whilst Luis Henriquez aims to better define the effects of changing nutrient regimes on local macroalgal communities and to measure differences in nutrient assimilation capacity of key species under differing environmental conditions.
The combined research of these students will provide a much better understanding of the driving factors behind potential "hotspots" in estuarine systems, the likely effects of these on macroalgal communities and the potential for natural and managed nutrient offsets.

Objectives:
1. Clarify the effect of nutrient changes on key macroalgal species under a variety of different environmental conditions
2. Characterise macroalgal communities in potential "hotspots" and identify key species
3. Describe the influence of nutrients, natural and anthropogenic, in potential "hotspots" by synthesising the findings of the empirical and modelling studies.
4. Make recommendations as to cost effectiveness of alternate options for nutrient mitigation based on all available data.

Funded Activity Details

Start Date: 01-02-2012

End Date: 30-06-2015

Funding Scheme: Funding Scheme not available

Funding Amount: $44,929.56

Funder: Fisheries Research and Development Corporation

Research Topics

ANZSRC Field of Research (FoR)

There are no FoR codes available for this funding activity

ANZSRC Socio-Economic Objective (SEO)

There are no SEO codes available for this funding activity

Other Keywords

Aquaculture | Aquarium | Community | Ecosystem | Habitat | Modelling | Nutrition | Storm Bay | Value Add

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