The world faces critical food security issues due to the combined pressures of population growth, depletion of finite resources and uncertainty in future climate. Of particular concern is the depletion of stocks in wild fisheries, and land-based aquaculture is one response to this problem. This research will look at opportunities to engineer highly efficient, integrated food production systems ...

Aquaponics is an effective method to practice sustainable agriculture and is gaining popularity in the US; however, the microbial safety of aquaponically grown produce needs to be ascertained. Aquaponics is a unique marriage of fish production and soil-free produce (e.g., leafy greens) production. Fish are raised in fresh water tanks that are connected to water filled beds where fruits and vege...

Plugs are rapidly replacing fresh-dug bare-root and cold-stored frigo plants as transplants for strawberry (Fragaria ×ananassa) production worldwide. Plugs have many advantages over these other types of propagules. They are grown in controlled environments (greenhouses, tunnels) in less time than field produced bare-root transplants, and are not exposed to soilborne pathogens. Plugs afford grea...

In this study, mathematical calculations developed through water-vapour phase-change theory is used to interpret the processes involved in the fresh water production of a thermoelectric distillation system. The rate of water production depends on various parameters of vaporization phenomena such as water and vapour temperatures, pressure, specific volume, heat capacity and water-vapour surface ...

The mainly fresh water arboviral vector Aedes aegypti L. (Diptera: Culicidae) can also undergo pre-imaginal development in brackish water of up to 15 ppt (parts per thousand) salt in coastal areas. We investigated differences in salinity tolerance, egg laying preference, egg hatching and larval development times and resistance to common insecticides in Ae. aegypti collected from brackish and fr...

Freshwaters are recognized as dynamic systems that may be far-removed from equilibrium. A kinetic approach using the competing ligand exchange method with Chelex 100 as the competing ligand and inductively coupled plasmamass spectrometry to measure the dissociation kinetics was used to investigate the chemical speciation of Mn(II), Co(II), Ni(II), Cu(II), Zn(II), Cd(II), and Pb(II) in model sol...

Different levels of eutrophication and pollution in the Baltic coastal waters in general, and in estuaries particularly define variations in the buffering capacity of ecosystems of these important filter zones between rivers and the adjacent Baltic Proper. Phyto- and zooplankton in the estuaries form important components of the pelagic food webs that participate in producing and structuring the...

Despite considerable increased pesticide use over the past decades, little research has been done into their fate and effects in surface waters in tropical regions. In the present review, possible differences in response between temperate and tropical freshwaters to pesticide stress are discussed. Three underlying mechanisms for these differences are distinguished: (1) climate related parameter...

Biological invasions have increased significantly in response to global change and constitute one of the major causes of biodiversity loss. Insects make up a large fraction of invasive species, in general, and freshwaters are among the most invaded ecosystems on our planet. However, even though aquatic insects dominate most inland waters, have unparalleled taxonomic diversity and occupy nearly ...

With the rapidly increasing demands on water resources, fresh water shortage has become an important issue affecting the economic and social development in many countries. As one of the main technologies for producing fresh water from saline water and other wastewater sources, reverse osmosis (RO) has been widely used so far. However, a major challenge facing widespread application of RO techno...