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Pushing the frontiers of marine ecological modeling: where are we now and how can we move forward?
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Aquaculture site prospecting: Using ocean observing platforms, remote sensing, and numerical modeling to inform sustainable ecological aquaculture expansion
Monday 7th @ 1350-1410, Conference Room 5
Damian Brady* , University of Maine
Emmanuel Boss, University of Maine
Carter Newell, Shellfish Research and Development
Dana Morse, Maine Sea Grant
Andrew Thomas, University of Maine
Nicholas Keeney, University of Maine
Presenter Email: damian.brady@maine.edu |
| As the global demand for marine protein has increased, so to has our reliance on aquaculture systems. The vast majority of marine aquaculture production still occurs in nearshore estuarine habitats, although offshore and land based facilities continue to make strides. In the U.S., Maine leads the country in marine aquaculture production but only engages a small proportion of its 5,600 km of tidal shoreline in this activity. By combining multiple observing platforms with linked hydrodynamic-biogeochemical models, we are identifying new areas for shellfish aquaculture expansion, characterizing important feedbacks that alter carrying capacity, and incorporating climate related factors into to future aquaculture growing area projections. Perhaps one of the more unique characteristics of this new observing-modeling platform is the incorporation of new nearshore remote sensing products (e.g., LandSat 8 and Sentinel 2A/B) capable of monitoring temperature, chlorophyll, turbidity (an indicator of suspended particulate matter in these systems), and chromophoric dissolved organic matter (an indicator of the influence of freshwater flow) at 20-30 meter resolution. The increased resolution of these products allow them to be used to inform farm scale decisions for the first time. These elements are being linked to growth models that parse the coast in to optimal areas for American oyster, blue mussel, and sea scallop growing areas with future plans to expand applicability to finfish and sea vegetables. Finally, the use of process-based water quality models for aquaculture site selection provides growers with better estimates of nutrient uptake and incorporation, changes in nutrient recycling in bottom sediments, a more accurate estimate of food resources that include detritus, and the ability to explore alternative growth scenarios based on resource management decisions or environmental change. |
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