This work shows the technical and economical aspects of seaweed farming for the production of phycocolloids or marine gums. Two different cultivation systems were used in four different sites inhabited by Wayúu fisherman communities in the townships of Cabo de La Vela and Carrizal, Guajira Peninsula, Colombia. The productivity and the growth rate of three commercial important macroalgae species, as well as the production costs, investment and returns of 0,5 ha marine farms, taking into consideration the design and construction of cultivation units made with cheap and available materials. The implementation of these farming systems could lead for the technological transfer of the locals. The income obtained through seaweed farming could benefit a large part of the coastal community as an additional and complementary cash crop to their traditional activities, including artisan fishing and goat rising, where the majority thrives in conditions of extreme poverty with the highest unmet basic needs index of the country.
Digital library
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An international group of taxonomists representing the United States, Japan, China, Thailand, Chile, and Vietnam describe the results of a 1999 workshop on the taxonomy of the groups Sargassum, Gelidiales, Gracilariales, Kappaphycus/Eucheuma, and Halymenia. This book, the eighth in a series, contains a special section on the marine algae of Vietnam. The California Sea Grant College Program, in cooperation with the University of Hawaii Sea Grant College Program, sponsored the workshop. It was organized and hosted by the Oceanographic Institute in Nha Trang, Vietnam. The rationale behind the first workshop in 1984 was that progress in seaweed aquaculture and marine natural products chemistry would require a better understanding of commercially interesting species. In these times of accelerated loss of habitat and biodiversity, the series of workshops have had the added benefit of providing lasting records of many species, including drawings and photos. They have also provided a forum at which algal specialists could work together on common regional and international problems.
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The original rationale behind this series of workshops was that progress in seaweed aquaculture and marine natural products chemistry would require that we better understand the taxonomy of commercially interesting species. Though this remains our primary goal, we have also come to appreciate that one of the most serious consequences of habitat destruction around the globe is loss of species diversity, including that of marine algae. Biodiversity has been defined as the collection of species (or distinct genetic entities), communities, and ecosystems occurring a geographically defined region. But describing changes in diversity over time, whether resulting from human activities or natural processes, require historical information based on rigorous species identification.
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The series of workshops of which this one was part rests on the conviction that progress in seaweed aquaculture and marine natural products chemistry will advance appreciably once the taxonomy of commercially interesting species is better understood.
California Sea Grant funded the first of these biennial workshops more than a decade ago - in 1984, at the University of Guam. From the first, Dr. Abbott served as organizer and motivator. Her vision was to bring together leading systematists from around the Pacific Rim to direct their knowledge and insight to the enormous ignorance that prevails about warm-water Pacific algae. She recognized that many of these eminent specialists were not being succeeded by younger generations and thus represented an irreplaceable resource. Further, she believed that the enthusiasm and dedication of workshop participants would overcome any difficulties presented by language and cultural differences.
The progress made at these workshops has been considerable, and we at California Sea Grant, and our colleagues in the other Pacific Sea Grant Colleges, are pleased to have been able to play some small part in making them possible.
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In this section, the new Philippine species of Sargassum, described in English in the previous volume (and illustrated) are validated with Latin diagnoses. These 12 new species are added to the 50 or so "known" species in the large Philippine archipelago.
Two contributions in this volume address those species with furcately branching leaves, or compressed primary branches. The first, by Ajisaka, Noro, Trono, Chiang, and Yoshida, treats the characteristics of the species statistically, thus continuing some of the earlier perspective. The second paper, by Noro, Ajisaka, and Yoshida, places five species in the synonymy of other species, all common or widespread taxa. This indicates that by whatever means, a gradual understanding of the limits of the common Sargassum species is being reached. Inasmuch as some of these species are "old" (e.g., species of C. Agardh, who was among the first to distinguish species within this group), perhaps examination of "younger" species will show that the younger species had been named one or more times previously.
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Evidence from molecular data supports the close taxonomic relationship of the two North Pacific species Delesseria decipiens and D. serrulata with Cumathamnion, up to now a monotypic genus known only from northern California, rather than with D. sanguinea, the type of the genus Delesseria and known only from the northeastern North Atlantic. The transfers of D. decipiens and D. serrulata into Cumathamnion are effected. Molecular data also reveal that what has passed as Membranoptera alata in the northwestern North Atlantic is distinct at the species level from northeastern North Atlantic (European) material; M. alata has a type locality in England. Multiple collections of Membranoptera and Pantoneura fabriciana on the North American coast of the North Atlantic prove to be identical for the three markers that have been sequenced, and the name Membranoptera fabriciana (Lyngbye) comb. nov. is proposed for them. Many collections of Membranoptera from the northeastern North Pacific (predominantly British Columbia), although representing the morphologies of several species that have been previously recognized, are genetically assignable to a single group for which the oldest name applicable is M. platyphylla.
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Ulva spp. are common in the intertidal zones of the Philippines, but, at certain times, could over-proliferate producing blooms or `green tide' in some protected bays. In Mactan Island (Cebu), central Philippines, at least two species constitute the Ulva population, either as free-living or attached form. The one referred to in the literature as `Ulva lactuca' mainly consists of free-living population while the species referred to as Ulva reticulata consists mainly of attached population. Based on morphological and physiological characteristics, `U. lactuca' differs much from the descriptions of the species from its type locality in Europe in having a crumpled texture of blade, presence of tooth-like protuberances at the margins, thinner thallus (40–50 μm) and more pyrenoids per cell (two to four). The species referred to as `U. lactuca' in the Philippines therefore is a different species. Two morphotypes consisted the `U. lactuca' population from Mactan – a thick thallus and a thin thallus type. However, both morphotypes cultured under the same condition in the laboratory could transform into the same thin-thallus type observed in the field. `Green tide' caused by `U. lactuca' occur almost regularly in Station 1 of Mactan Island, reaching an average biomass of up to 2.6 kg wet wt m−2 (or 0.5 kg dry wt m−2). Ulva reticulata, although was less abundant in the rocky tidal zone at most times, reaching an average biomass of only up to 0.15 kg wet wt m−2 (or 0.03 kg dry wt m−2) had caused green tide in Station 2 around February–March. Reproductive structures were not observed in both Ulva species during the survey period suggesting that vegetative fragmentation is the main mode of propagation. Vegetative tissues excised from the thallus can be induced to release biflagellated large and small zooids.
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The effects of Tasco®, a product made from the brown seaweed (Ascophyllum nodosum) were tested for the ability to protect Caenorhabditis elegans against Pseudomonas aeruginosa infection. A water extract of Tasco® (TWE) reduced P. aeruginosa inflicted mortality in the nematode. The TWE, at a concentration of 300 µg/mL, offered the maximum protection and induced the expression of innate immune response genes viz.; zk6.7 (Lypases), lys-1 (Lysozyme), spp-1 (Saponin like protein), f28d1.3 (Thaumatin like protein), t20g5.7 (Matridin SK domain protein), abf-1 (Antibacterial protein) and f38a1.5 (Lectin family protein). Further, TWE treatment also affected a number of virulence components of the P. aeuroginosa and reduced its secreted virulence factors such as lipase, proteases and toxic metabolites; hydrogen cyanide and pyocyanin. Decreased virulence factors were associated with a significant reduction in expression of regulatory genes involved in quorum sensing, lasI, lasR, rhlI and rhlR. In conclusion, the TWE-treatment protected the C. elegans against P. aeruginosa infection by a combination of effects on the innate immunity of the worms and direct effects on the bacterial quorum sensing and virulence factors.
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The world's first modern seaweed farms being tested at Frøya.
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Large scale cultivation of seaweed can be the start of a significant energy industry. SES is carrying out pilot tests outside Froya and preparing for scale-up.
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