Biogeochemical ecology of aquaculture ponds

Miscellaneous · Fri Jan 01 00:00:00 EST 1988

OSTI ID:7068041

Weisburd, R S.J.

Two methods to determine rates of organic matter production and consumption were applied in shrimp aquaculture ponds. Several questions were posed: can net rates of organic matter production and consumption be determined accurately through application of dissolved inorganic carbon (DIC) mass balance in a pond with high advective through-put Are organically loaded aquaculture ponds autotrophic How do rates of organic production vary temporally Are there diurnal changes in respiration rates Four marine ponds in Hawaii have been evaluated for a 53 day period through the use of geochemical mass balances. All fluxes of DIC into and out of the ponds were considered. DIC was calculated from hourly pH measurements and weekly alkalinity measurements. Average uptake of DIC from the pond water, equivalent to net community production, revealed net autotrophy in all cases. Hourly and longer period variations in organic matter production rates were examined. The daily cycle dominated the variation in rates of net community production. Maximal rates of net community production were maintained for four to six hours starting in mid-morning. Respiration rates decreased rapidly during the night in two of the ponds and remained essentially constant in the others. A similar pattern of decreasing respiration at night was seen in freshwater shrimp ponds which were studied with incubations. A new method involving isotope dilution of {sup 14}C-labeled DIC was used to measure respiration rates in light and dark bottles. This method is an inexpensive and convenient procedure which should also be useful in other environments. The incubations demonstrated that plankton respiration rates peak at or soon after solar noon and vary over the course of the day by about a factor of two.

• Research Organization: Hawaii Univ., Honolulu, HI (USA)
• OSTI ID: 7068041
• Resource Relation: Other Information: Thesis (Ph.D)
• Country of Publication: United States
• Language: English

Related Subjects

54 ENVIRONMENTAL SCIENCES
PONDS
BIOGEOCHEMISTRY
AQUACULTURE
CARBON
CARBON 14 COMPOUNDS
ECOLOGY
EXPERIMENTAL DATA
ISOTOPE DILUTION
MASS BALANCE
NUTRIENTS
ORGANIC MATTER
CHEMISTRY
DATA
ELEMENTS
GEOCHEMISTRY
INFORMATION
ISOTOPE APPLICATIONS
LABELLED COMPOUNDS
NONMETALS
NUMERICAL DATA
SURFACE WATERS
TRACER TECHNIQUES
540311* - Environment
Aquatic- Basic Studies- Radiometric Techniques- (1990-)