Digital library

  • Bio Architecture Lab, Xunshan Group to co-develop integrated biorefinery

    Partnership aims for fuels, chemicals & co-products from brown seaweed

    In California, Bio Architecture Lab announced an agreement with China’s Xunshan Group, the world’s largest grower of brown seaweed and a global ocean fishery and aquaculture company. Under terms of the agreement, the companies will develop an integrated seaweed bio-refinery to produce a low cost carbohydrate for the production of renewable chemicals, fuels, animal feed and a variety of other high value products using Xunshan’s seaweed and Bal’s conversion technology.

    Author(s):

  • Bio Architecture Lab, EcoShift make waves with seaweed-based biofuels

    Measuring the greenhouse gas (GHG) intensity of biof uels has become increasingly important in recent years. Studies have shown a significant amount of variation in biofuels made from different feedstocks. In some cases, biofuels are only marginally better than fossil fuel counterparts. In other cases, there are significant improvements in GHG performance.

    Author(s): Jim Lane, Dustin Mulvaney

  • Binding of Mono, Bi and Tridomain Proteins to Zwitterionic and Anionic Vesicles: Asymmetric Location of Anionic Phospholipids in Mixed Zwitterionic/Anionic Vesicles and Cooperative Binding

    Lysozyme, myoglobin and BSA were used as models of globular proteins covering a wide range of pI. The purpose is to extend the studies to anionic lipid bilayers. Electrostatics is studied in cationic protein adsorption to zwitterionic PC and anionic mixed PC/PG SUVs. Protein adsorption is investigated in SUVs along with changes of fluorescence emission spectra. Partition coefficients and cooperativity parameters are calculated. At pI binding obtains maximum while at lower or higher pHs binding decreases. In Gouy-Chapman formalism activity coefficient goes with square charge, which deviations indicate asymmetric location of anionic phospholipid in the inner leaflet, in mixed SUVs for lysozyme- and myoglobin-PC/PG systems, in agreement with experiments and molecular dynamics simulations. Vesicles bind myoglobin anti-cooperatively while lysozyme-BSA cooperativitivey. A model is proposed for both, which composes two protein sub-layers with different structures and properties. Hill coefficient reflects subunit cooperativity of bi and tridomain proteins.

    Author(s): Francisco Torrens, Gloria Castellano

  • Big Island Abalone- yesterday, today, and tomorrow

    A PDF Power Point on "Big Island Abalone- yesterday, today, and tomorrow".

    Author(s): Celilia Viljoen

  • Bibliography on Gracilaria - Production and Utilization in the Bay of Bengal

    This bibliography was prepared by BOBP for the seminar on Gracilaria . production and utilization in the Bay of Bengal, which was held 23-27 October, 1989 in Songkhla, Thailand. The literature mentioned in this bibliography deals with biology, resources, culture, processing and marketing of Gracilaria spp. It may help serve as a source of information to farmers, researchers and officials concerned with Gracifaria farming, processing and marketing. The Bay of Bengal Programme is a regional fisheries programme that covers seven countries bordering the Bay of Bengal -- Bangladesh, India, Indonesia, Malaysia, Maldives, Sri Lanka and Thailand. It is small-scale fisheries oriented and strives for the socioeconomic betterment of fisherfolk communities of the region by developing and demonstrating new ideas or techniques, new technologies, methodologies or systems to help small-scale fisherfolk. BOBP supported farming trials for Gracilaria in Malaysia and provided assistance for open sea farming trials in India and Sri Lanka. A post-harvest project extends support and training in post-harvest technology of agarophytic seaweeds in participating countries, This paper is an information document and has not been officially cleared by the Governments or agencies concerned. 

    Author(s):

  • BEYOND THE MONOSPECIFIC APPROACH TO ANIMAL AQUACULTURE — THE LIGHT OF INTEGRATED MULTI-TROPHIC AQUACULTURE

    The focus of present-day aquaculture is typically monospecific animal culture. Even the development of “alternative” species for aquaculture usually refers to alternative species of fish or shellfish. However, although introducing another species of fish or shellfish may have short-term benefits, rarely does it balance energetically and ecologically in the long term. What is needed is appropriate proportions of different cocultured organisms, performing different processes throughout the day and seasonally. Other than in Asia, the fundamental role and the contribution of seaweeds in coastal waters have frequently been either ignored or misunderstood. Seaweeds are rarely factored into modeling equations of coastal systems. At a time when nutrification of coastal waters is becoming a pressing issue worldwide and the contribution of the inorganic output of aquaculture to regional nutrient loading is becoming more widely recognized, integrating seaweeds, which act as biological nutrient scrubbers, into fish or shellfish aquaculture is a promising, balanced-ecosystem approach. Integrating seaweeds into aquaculture systems provides bioremediation capability, mutual benefits to the co-cultured organisms, and economic diversification of the industry by producing another value-added marine crop. We discuss these concepts and illustrate the benefits of integrated multi-trophic aquaculture (IMTA) using projects that we are conducting in New England, USA, in which the culture of the red alga Porphyra (nori) is integrated with salmonid culture, and in the Maritime Provinces, Canada, in which open-water aquaculture of Chondrus crispus (Irish moss) is conducted in proximity to mussel and oyster aquaculture operations. The aquaculture industry recognizes its need to practice responsible aquaculture by moving in new directions, such as IMTA. This will require wise investment in research and development.

    Author(s): Yarish, Charles GLYN SHARP, THIERRY CHOPIN

  • Better Management Practices for Seaweed Farming Eucheuma and Kappaphycus

    This practical manual "Better management practices for seaweed farming" is produced by the Philippines national team under the ASEAN Foundation supported project "Strengthening capacity of small holder ASEAN aquaculture farmers for competitive and sustainable aquaculture" implemented by NACA in five ASEAN countries. The long-term objective of the project was to assist ASEAN small- scale aquaculture farmers improve their livelihoods by being competitive in markets and improving farm management practices to deliver quality and sustainably produced aquaculture products.

    Author(s): Nemencio B. Arevalo , Tiburcio C. Donaire , Maximo A. Ricohermoso , Ronald Simbajon

  • Better management practices for environmentally sustainable production of microalgae and algal biofuels

    The commercialization of biofuels produced from microalgae is in its infancy; therefore, many resource- management practices and production processes are still flexible. The purpose of this paper is to guide development of supply chains toward more environmentally sustainable practices. We review current and projected technologies and practices for autotrophic microalgae cultivation that promote environ- mental sustainability. We develop a framework that leverages these studies to propose better man- agement practices (BMPs) for water quality and quantity, biodiversity, or greenhouse gas emissions in concert with productivity and profitability considerations. Some proposed BMPs are linked to numerical environmental targets, such as percent reductions in nutrient loadings to streams, whereas others seek to avoid thresholds leading to adverse health or ecological effects. Still others involve using the best available technologies, developed iteratively through life-cycle and techno-economic analyses. Proposed BMPs for microalgae cultivation focus on water quality and quantity, as well as improving greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions to obtain advanced biofuel designation. BMPs must allow producers to meet produc- tivity and profitability targets, as well as environmental targets. These example BMPs characterize the state of science and engineering; thus, they will change over time. 

    Author(s): Rebecca A. Efroymson , Henriette I. Jager, Shovon Mandal, Esther S. Parish, Teresa J. Mathews

  • Beneficial effects of seaweed-derived dietary fiber: Highlights of the sulfated polysaccharides

    Seaweeds and their derivatives are important bioresources of natural bioactive compounds. Nutritional studies indicate that dietary fibers derived from seaweeds have great beneficial potentials in human health and can be developed as functional food. Moreover, sulfated polysaccharides are more likely to be the main bioactive components which are widely distributed in various species of seaweeds including Phaeophyceae, Rhodophyceae and Chlorophyceae. The catabolism by gut microbiota of the seaweeds-derived dietary fibers (DFs) may be one of the pivotal pathways of their physiological functions. Therefore, in this review, we summarized the latest results of the physiological characteristics of seaweed-derived dietary fiber and highlighted the roles of sulfated poly- saccharides in the potential regulatory mechanisms against disorders. Meanwhile, the effects of different types of seaweed-derived dietary fiber on gut microbiota were discussed. The analysis of the structure–function corre- lations and gut microbiota related mechanisms and will contribute to further better applications in food and biotherapeutics. 

    Author(s): Wenqi Huang , Huizi Tan, Shaoping Nie

  • Behavior of the Edible Seaweed Sargassum fusiforme to Copper Pollution: Short-Term Acclimation and Long- Term Adaptation

    Aquatic agriculture in heavy-metal-polluted coastal areas faces major problems due to heavy metal transfer into aquatic organisms, leading to various unexpected changes in nutrition and primary and/or secondary metabolism. In the present study, the dual role of heavy metal copper (Cu) played in the metabolism of photosynthetic organism, the edible seaweed Sargassum fusiforme, was evaluated by characterization of biochemical and metabolic responses using both 1H NMR and GC-MS techniques under acute (47 µM, 1 day) and chronic stress (8 µM, 7 days). Consequently, photosynthesis may be seriously inhibited by acute Cu exposure, resulting in decreasing levels of carbohydrates, e.g., mannitol, the main products of photosynthesis. Ascorbate may play important roles in the antioxidant system, whose content was much more seriously decreased under acute than that under chronic Cu stress. Overall, these results showed differential toxicological responses on metabolite profiles of S. fusiforme subjected to acute and chronic Cu exposures that allowed assessment of impact of Cu on marine organisms.

    Author(s): Xiu-Feng Yan, Qin-Qin Wu, Lu-Min Li, Yan-Qing Lin, Nan Li, Ai-Qin Zhang, Li-Dong Lin, Qiu-Ying Pang, Hui-Xi Zou

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