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Young Researchers and Professionals
| Project leader |
Klanjscek Tin |
| Administering organization: |
Ruđer Bošković Institute
P.O.Box 180
Bijenička 54
10002 Zagreb
Croatia |
| Partner Institution/Company: |
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| Grant type: |
3B |
| Project title: |
Finfish mariculture dynamic energy budget model (FiMDEB) |
| Project summary: |
Cultivating marine organisms in a controlled environment, mariculture, can provide an alternative to fisheries. Croatia has declared mariculture development as a strategic goal. Achieving this goal requires minimizing production costs and environmental impacts of mariculture.
Majority of the cost and environmental impact of fish mariculture is a consequence of feeding necessary for fish growth. Increasing feeding increases fish growth rate, but decreases the proportion of food assimilated. The remaining
food is a wasted investment. Consequently, fish farmers need to balance their desire for faster fish growth with the need to conserve the expensive feed. Since non-assimilated feed enters the environment where it can contribute to
environmental problems, reducing food wastage also reduces the environmental impact of the mariculture.
Current tools to determine the optimal feeding scenario are seriously lacking. They assume constant environment, use a single parameter (usually weight) to characterize fish growth, and cannot predict fish growth from the available feed.
The resulting feeding scenarios are usually restricted to a feeding rate equal to a fixed proportion of the weight of the fish.
Fish growth is, however, influenced by size and weight. For example, small fat fish grow slower than large skinny fish of the same weight. A model used to optimize feeding needs to distinguish these two cases. To simulate a wide variety of possible feeding scenarios, such a model also needs to predict growth of fish from available food.
We propose to create such a model and investigate comparative advantages of various feeding scenarios. We will do this by applying a recently developed theory of distribution and utilization of energy in organisms.
The proposed model will provide a theoretical basis to analyze effects of environmental conditions such as temperature and oxygen concentrations, which
also affect fish energetics and, therefore, growth. These effects are currently only empirically taken into the account .
We expect to discover feeding scenarios which will significantly reduce the necessary amount of feed, but potential benefits of the proposed project go
beyond mariculture applications. The model can readily be applied to freshwater aquaculture, which is also an important part of Croatia’s development strategy. Furthermore, we expect the project to provide new insights into fish energetics.
Applying the model to wild fish populations can provide insights in their growth dynamics, thereby furthering our understanding of nature and potentially helping fish management efforts. |
| Hrvatski sažetak: |
Zbog mogućnosti da zamijeni ribolov, razvitak uzgoja morskih organizama (marikulture) jedan je od strateških ciljeva Hrvatske. Minimiziranje troškova proizvodnje i utjecaja na okoliš nužni su za dostizanje tog cilja.
Hrana za ribe većinski doprinosi troškovima uzgoja i utjecajima marikulture na okoliš. Povećanje intenziteta hranjenja povećava rast ribe, no smanjuje postotak asimilacije hrane. Hrana koja nije asimilirana ne predstavlja samo izgubljenu investiciju, već i povećava utjecaj marikulture na okoliš. Zbog toga uzgajivači moraju balansirati želju za što bržim rastom ribe sa potrebom da potrošnja hrana bude što manja.
Dosadašnji alati koji pomažu pri određivanju najboljeg režima prehrane podrazumijevaju konstantne uvijete u okolišu, koriste samo jednu veličinu (najčešće težinu) kao pokazatelj rasta, i ne mogu predvidjeti rast iz dostupne hrane. Prehrambeni scenariji dobiveni takvim alatima mahom su ograničeni na konstantnu prehranu izraženu u postotku težine ribe.
No, na rast ribe osim težine utječe i njena veličina. Na primjer, mala debela riba sporije povećava svoju težinu od velike mršave. Modeli koji se koriste za optimizaciju prehrane moraju moći razlučiti ta dva slučaja. Nadalje, kako bi omogućili istraživanje različitih scenarija prehrane, ti modeli moraju moći i predvidjeti rast ribe iz ribi dostupne hrane.
Mi predlažemo razvitak takvog modela i upotrebu istog za istraživanje prednosti različitih scenarija prehrane. Novi pomaci u teoriji raspodjele i upotrebe energije omogućavaju taj pristup. Predloženi model pružiti će i teorijsku podlogu za analizu posljedica karakteristika okoliša (npr. temperature i dostupnosti kisika) koji utječu na energetiku, pa time i rast riba, a do sada su bili promatrani jedino empirijski.
Iako očekujemo pronalazak scenarija prehrane koji će značajno smanjiti količine potrebne hrane, potencijalna saznanja iz ovog projekta biti će primjenjiva i drugdje. Model će se moći primijeniti na uzgoj riba u slatkoj vodi, razvoj kojeg je također u strategijskim odrednicama Hrvatske. Očekivana saznanja o energetici i rastu riba mogla bi proširiti i naše razumijevanje riba u prirodi i time omogućiti bolje upravljanje prirodnim resursima. |
| Amount requested from UKF: |
93.063 € |
| Amount of matching funding: |
25.568 € |
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