Plankton Impacts on Farmed Fish (PIFF): Investigating the relationship between plankton communities and gill health in order to improved health and welfare of farmed fish

Scotland’s coastal waters are subject to natural and anthropogenic forces including tides, weather, seasonality, climate change and pollution. The Scottish Coastal Observatory (SCObs) is generating key data on the ecology of these coastal waters; providing a first description of the sustained seasonality and variability of the physics, nutrients and plankton community (Bresnan et al., 2016). The coastal ecosystem plays an important role in the Scottish economy and supports an aquaculture industry worth £1.8 billion, representing over 40% of all food products. The impact of changing environmental variables reflected in shifting composition of marine plankton communities on the farmed fish is not fully understood. Data from SCObs has shown changes in the abundance, timing and diversity of various taxonomic groups since monitoring began in 1997 but little is known about diversity of potentially toxic flagellates or gelatinous siphonophores. This is due to the difficulty in identifying these plankton in routine monitoring programmes using morphological criteria.
Plankton can have a negative impact of fish health, specially affecting gills which are in direct contact with planktonic organisms. Both physical damage, overstimulation of the fish immune system as well as damage from toxin production by selected phytoplankton flagellate species and gelatinous zooplankton have been documented in the literature. While the presence of both toxic flagellates and siphonophores have been noted at SCObs sites, their diversity and fluctuation throughout the year as well as their potential negative impact on fish gills needs to be determined and this knowledge incorporated into improved aquaculture management practice. Lack of information on these particular groups of plankton restrict the use of SCObs data to support the aquaculture industry to allow them to practically respond to changing marine environment.
This project aims to investigate the relationship between plankton communities and gill health in order to improved health and welfare of farmed fish. This will be achieved by; ( 1) Investigation of the diversity of toxic flagellates and siphonophores in Scottish coastal waters using MSS archived material. This will use currently available molecular tools as well as state of art DNA metabarcoding in combination with advanced scanning electron microscopy.
(2) Analysis of SCObs plankton data already collected (20 years) and new data gathered during a production cycle on neighbouring fish farm to investigate the potential relationship between the plankton community and gill health of farmed fish.
(3) Assessment of gill health following experimental exposure of fish to toxic flagellates and/or siphonophores and investigation of type or duration of the fish response to such events.
This project is developed to deliver multidisciplinary research, combining both highly academic research including novel molecular techniques, and bioinformatics as well as more applied focus on development of governmental policies and needs of end-users to improve farm management practices. The student will develop broad molecular skills and also more conventional microscopic and taxonomic skills covering a broad range of planktonic taxa. The student will have opportunities to gain insight into fish husbandry, farm management practices and present at both academic and aquaculture industry stakeholder meetings.
Application Process:
Please apply for admission to the ’Degree of Doctor of Philosophy in Biological Science’ to ensure that your application is passed to the correct college for processing.
Please provide a copy of the degree certificate and transcript for each previous degree undertaken, a copy of your English language proficiency certificate (if relevant), and contact details of two referees who can comment on your previous academic performance (at least one should be from your current degree programme). References will be requested if you are selected for interview. Incomplete applications will not be considered.