Healthier Communities of Phytoplankton and Bacteria Achieved via the Application of Modified Clay in Shrimp Aquaculture Ponds

Abstract

The composition and stability of microbial communities in aquaculture water are crucial for the healthy growth of shrimp and present considerable risk to aquatic ecosystems. The modified clay (MC) method has been proposed as an efficient and safe solution for the mitigation of harmful algal blooms (HABs). Currently, the effects of MC on microbial communities in aquaculture water remain unknown. Here, we adopted the MC method to regulate shrimp-culture water quality and evaluated the effects of MC on the composition and stability of phytoplankton together with bacteria communities through high-throughput sequencing. On the one hand, a prominent change in the composition of microbial community was observed, with green algae becoming the most abundant genera and pathogens being infrequent in the MC-treated pond, which was more conducive to the growth of shrimp than that in the control pond. Moreover, MC could increase the diversity and stability of the microbial community structure in the water column, which had a higher anti-interference ability, as demonstrated by the analysis of the diversity and molecular ecological network. Taken together, MC could reduce the possibility for the occurrence of HABs and maintain a stable microbial community, which is beneficial for the health and high yield of shrimp.

Predictive functional profiling of water bacterial community in the integrated culture of Pacific white shrimp and Nile tilapia under heterotrophic and mature biofloc systems

“…In all analysed samples, the two functional groups exhibiting the highest abundance were chemoheterotrophy and aerobic chemoheterotrophy (Figure 1), a pattern that has been commonly observed in studies assessing the functional profile of the water bacterial community in shrimp farming, both in conventional (Ding et al, 2021; Vinothkumar et al, 2021) and in BFT systems (Zhu et al, 2021), in addition to ex situ BFT applications (Kokkuar et al, 2021) and in the sediment of aquaculture integrated systems employing fish and shellfish (Zheng et al, 2018). Super‐intensive zero water exchange aquaculture production systems, such as BFT, are characterized by nutrient enrichment and accumulation of organic matter (Avnimelech, 2015; Samocha, 2019), which could favour this type of metabolism, as chemoheterotrophy characterizes bacteria that use organic chemical substances as a source of energy and organic compounds as their main source of carbon (Chan, 2003).…”

Effects of submerged macrophytes (Elodea nuttallii) on water quality and microbial communities of largemouth bass (Micropterus salmoides) ponds

“…However, in most countries, unstable and uncontrolled traditional intensive production has led to environmental and social problems (Rabalais et al, 2010;Troell et al, 2014;Fu, 2016;Waajen et al, 2016;Paerl, 2017;Jose Huertas and Mallen-Ponce, 2022). Given the negative impacts of intensive aquaculture, fishermen and scientists have pushed for more new approaches to fisheries practices based on ecosystem function and biological regulation (Ding et al, 2021;Tang et al, 2021).…”

“…Excessive nutrients and an imbalanced microorganism community can result in outbreaks of harmful algal and pathogenic bacteria, which easily accumulate and infect aquatic animals; this results in disease and mass mortalities of aquaculture species. Therefore, a healthy and stable phytoplankton and bacterial ecosystem is an important requirement for producing high yields of healthy aquaculture organisms (Ding et al, 2021). Water with submerged plants will have unavoidable environmental changes, and submerged plants have been demonstrated to be vital to the microorganism community (Van der Gucht et al, 2007).…”

Application of modified clay in intensive mariculture pond: Impacts on nutrients and phytoplankton

“…In contrast, the phytoplankton community in the MC-regulated pond was relatively stable in change and no HABs occurred during the study period. Based on the mean Bray-Curtis distances and molecular ecological network analysis of the community, (Ding et al 2021) proposed that MC could enhance the resistance of phytoplankton ecological communities in cultured waters to environmental disturbance. Moreover, under the traditional condition, a high propensity for dinoflagellate blooms existed, influenced by the variation in the composition and structure of nutrients, and posed a potential risk to the growth of shrimp.…”