With so many research
projects going on at the center I will try and post brief descriptions of what
they each entail over the next few weeks and further elaborate on them as I
begin to get more involved in research.
The ocean acidification lab studies
the effects of pH and temperature change on marine organisms over several
generations to model the future effects of Global Warming.
The Barcode of Life is an international initiative to
create a database of DNA sequences of all living organisms. Their primary goal is to extend the
geographic and taxonomic coverage of the barcode reference library. This will make the information easily
accessible and could be beneficial in biodiversity conservation and
identification. The National Marine
Science Center intends to take part in the initiative for the marine creatures
of the area.
For more information on this project see the website
below
Mullet Aquaculture: Mullet fish are native to Australia’s river
and ocean ecosystems and beneficial to river health. They are detritus feeders so they remove
waste from riverbeds. Unfortunately,
dams along many of Australia’s rivers do not allow for fish passage so the
Mullet cannot access the ocean to spawn therefore they have rapidly declined in
most rivers and are nonexistent in others.
Captive breeding of Mullet has no successful instances in New South
Wales and few elsewhere. Success in captive breeding and aquaculture
programs would allow for reintroduction into river systems to improve water
quality and also has great potential to be farmed as a food source. Because mullet are detritus feeders they can
not only sustain but healthily grow and reach full maturity on just about any
organic matter such as yard clippings. In
terms of food security, this has potential to be a widely produced low cost
protein source.
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