Download Aquaculture is the farming of freshwater and saltwater organisms

Aquaculture is the farming of freshwater and saltwater organisms such as finfish,
mollusks, crustacean and aquatic plants. Aquaculture typically referrers to the
managed reproduction and grow out of aquatic organisms under controlled
conditions. We are offering an exciting opportunity for students to participate in
the design and development of an oyster mariculture project. Working with local fisherman,
participants will collect spat from a highly productive nursery, choose an appropriate framing site, and
grow out the oyster to a marketable size. This project includes water quality monitoring at the farm site
of indicator organisms, nutrients, and suspended solids.
Bivalves are widely distributed in both fresh and marine environments and are well known for the water
filtering capacity. By feeding on material with high surface area to volume ratio, any contaminates
associated with the diet are efficiently bioaccumulated. Besides the commercial value of some of the
species, they are importance ecosystem engineers. They can attain large populations and biomass and
where they do they are known to be a functional dominant species that regulate key processes and
provide essential habitat. They also function as bioindicators, groups or types of biological resources
that can be used to assess the environmental condition. We are offering an exciting opportunity for
students to participate in further developing these organisms as bioindicator of ecosystem conditions.
Students will collect oysters from areas with varying degrees of development and evaluate their
physiological condition as well as concentrations of select contaminants.
We have studied coastal
water quality in southwest
Puerto Rico for nearly 15 years. It is critical that many of these
areas are revisited as development activities have changed. As
part of this study we return to our historic study site and
resample water quality parameter and ecosystem health to
determine change over time. In addition, we are including
modern technologies such as next-generation sequencing to evaluate microbial differences associated
with development trajectories. Students interested in this research should contact CECIA to discuss
research possibilities in the near future.
Invasions of non-native species have resulted in biodiversity loss and changes in ecosystem structure
around the world. The establishment of non-native marine fishes is globally rare; however, the recent
introduction and proliferation of two species of predatory lionfish (Pterois volitans, P. miles) in the
Caribbean is causing great concern about their potential impacts on fish recruitment, and consequently
species’ abundances and community structure. Reefs have many competitive and co-operative
interactions, both biotic and abiotic. Degradation is most often associated with runoff and groundwater
seepage carrying nutrients, metals, pesticides, biocides and chemicals; however, not known are the
effects of the invasion of a non-native fish species. These effects may extent directly and indirectly to
the flora and fauna community. As part of this research we are reviewing species richness and cover
and comparing this to historic data. Students interested in this research should contact CECIA to discuss
research possibilities in the near future.