top of page

Project Objectives

 
 

Objective 1: Response to overcrowding and stress

  • To examine how contrasting species adapt to crowding

  • To examine how such response may differ between wild and farmed fish in relation to cycles of parasite transmission

Research approach:

What?

  • Influence of crowding in morphology, physiology, behaviour and resistance to parasites of wild and farmed fish

How?

  • Analyses of differential gene expression in response to stress

  • Assessing the potential of transgenerational epigenetic control in the response to crowding

Species:

  • Tilapia (Oreochromis spp.)

  • Atlantic salmon (Salmo salar)

  • Sea bass (Dicentrarchus labrax)

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Objective 2: Genetic and epigenetic basis of responses to stress & disease

  • To analyse the relative roles of genetic and non-genetic effects in the response to stress and pathogen resistance

  • To investigate gene expression patterns underpinning optimal and suboptimal phenotypes in the context of crowding and infection.

 

Research approach:

What?

  • Influence of stress in morphology, physiology, behaviour and resistance to parasites of wild and farmed fish

How?

  • Analyses of differential gene expression in response to infection

  • Assessing the potential of transgenerational epigenetic control in the response to disease

Species:

  • Tilapia (Oreochromis spp.)

  • Atlantic salmon (Salmo salar)

  • Sea bass (Dicentrarchus labrax)

 

Objective 3: Introduction & dispersal of invasive species

  • To analyse pathways of introduction and dispersal of aquaculture-related invasive species (AIS)

  • To develop a detailed map of AIS distribution in Wales and will feed into the modelling of past and future routes of dispersal, taking into account different potential scenarios of climate change

 

Research approach:

What?

  • Early detection and dispersal modelling of aquatic invasive species (AIS) associated with aquaculture and fisheries

How?

  • Using novel methods of detection (eDNA) and citizen science (Apps, workshops dissemination) to map and model routes of dispersal under different scenarios of climate change

Species:

  • American signal crayfish (Pacifastacus leniusculus)

  • Zebra mussel (Dreissena polymorpha)

  • Chinese mitten crab (Eriocheir sinensis)

 

 

 

 

bottom of page