Prediction of ammonia contaminants in the aquaculture ponds using soft computing coupled with wavelet analysis

Sustainable land-based IMTA: Holistic management of finfish, mussel, and macroalgae interactions, emphasizing water quality and nutrient dynamics

This research aims to minimize the environmental impact and promote the sustainability of aquaculture by optimizing nutrient dynamics, improving water quality and enhancing species growth performance through a land-based Integrated Multi-Trophic Aquaculture (IMTA) system. The study focused on Black Sea trout (Salmo labrax), Mediterranean mussel (Mytilus galloprovincialis), and sea lettuce (Ulva lactuca), reared in interconnected tanks using Black Sea water over 90 days. The Black Sea trout more than doubled in size to 333.92 ± 6.60 g and significant improvements were observed in the specific growth rate (SGR) at 0.85% and the feed conversion ratio (FCR) at 1.38. The fish's proximate composition included 19.19% protein, 2.31% lipid, 70.35% moisture, and 1.34% ash, with eicosapentaenoic acid (EPA) and docosahexaenoic acid (DHA) levels at 6.06% and 13.50%, respectively. The macroalgae showed substantial growth, with a SGR of 0.34% and a weight gain of 310 ± 3.50 g. Additionally, it increased protein content by 13.41% and demonstrated significant nutrient removal efficiencies: 41.4% for nitrate, 66.7% for nitrite, and 90.8% for ammonia. EPA and DHA levels increased by 45% and 70%, reaching 4.66% and 2.19%, respectively. In contrast, the mussels experienced a weight loss, with a weight gain of -1.20 ± 0.00 g and an SGR of -0.20%. Initially, wild mussels had a composition of 77.56% moisture, 13.79% protein, 1.54% lipid, and 1.77% ash. The presence of mussels and macroalgae significantly improved water quality, notably reducing ammonia by 92.2%, nitrate by 44.6% and nitrite by 75%, benefiting the overall ecosystem. This study concludes that a land-based IMTA system enhances sustainable aquaculture by improving product quality and bioremediation, with macroalgae playing a crucial role in nutrient absorption and growth within the system.

Ecological restoration for eutrophication mitigation in urban interconnected water bodies: Evaluation, variability and strategy

Many urban water bodies grapple with low flow flux and weak hydrodynamics. To address these issues, projects have been implemented to form integrated urban water bodies via interconnecting artificial lake or ponds with rivers, but causing pollution accumulation downstream and eutrophication. Despite it is crucial to assess eutrophication, research on this topic in urban interconnected water bodies is limited, particularly regarding variability and feasible strategies for remediation. This study focused on the Loucun river in Shenzhen, comprising an pond, river and artificial lake, evaluating water quality changes pre-(post-)ecological remediation and establishing a new method for evaluating the water quality index (WQI). The underwater forest project, involving basement improvement, vegetation restoration, and aquatic augmentation, in the artificial lake significantly reduced total nitrogen (by 43.58%), total phosphorus (by 79.17%) and algae density (by 36.90%) compared to pre-remediation, effectively controlling algal bloom. Rainfall, acting as a variable factor, exacerbated downstream nutrient accumulation, increasing total phosphorus by 4.56 times and ammonia nitrogen by 1.30 times compared to the dry season, and leading to algal blooms in the non-restoration pond. The improved WQI method effectively assesses water quality status. The interconnected water body exhibits obvious nutrient accumulation in downstream regions. A combined strategy that reducing nutrient and augmenting flux was verified to alleviate accumulation of nutrients downstream. This study provides valuable insights into pollution management strategies for interconnected pond-river-lake water bodies, offering significant reference for nutrient mitigation in such urban water bodies.

Balancing aquaculture and estuarine ecosystems: machine learning-based water quality indices for effective management

This study delves into the environmental impact of inland aquaculture on estuarine ecosystems by examining the water quality of four estuarine streams within the key inland aquaculture zone of South India. In this region, extensive and intensive aquaculture practices are common, posing potential challenges to estuarine health. The research explores the predictive capabilities of the Gaussian elimination method (GEM) and machine learning techniques, specifically multi-linear regression (MLR) and support vector regressor (SVR), in forecasting the water quality index of these streams. Through comprehensive evaluation using performance metrics such as coefficient of determination (R2) and average mean absolute percentage error (MAPE), MLR and SVR demonstrate higher prediction efficiency. Notably, employing key water parameters as inputs in machine learning models is also more effective. Biochemical oxygen demand (BOD) emerges as a critical water parameter, identified by both MLR and SVR, exhibiting high specificity in predicting water quality. This suggests that MLR and SVR, incorporating key water parameters, should be prioritized for future water quality monitoring in intensive aquaculture zones, facilitating timely warnings and interventions to safeguard water quality.

Novel assessment tools for inland aquaculture in the western Godavari delta region of Andhra Pradesh

The production of fisheries and shrimp has been twice every 10 years for the previous five decades, making it the most rapidly expanding food industry. This growth is due to intensive farming and the conversion of agriculture into aquaculture in many parts of South Asia. Furthermore, intensive aquaculture generates positive economic growth but leads to environmental degradation without proper monitoring. Unfortunately, technical innovation is less in aquaculture than agricultural and manufacturing industries. The advent of remote sensing and soft computing has expanded various opportunities for utilizing and integrating technological advances in civil and environmental disciplines. This paper presents the aquaculture scenario in the western Godavari delta region of Andhra Pradesh and proposes various novel assessment tools to monitor the aquaculture environment. An experimental investigation was carried out on the physicochemical characteristics of the inland aquaculture ponds to evaluate water quality in the aquaculture ponds. Furthermore, to assess the intensity of inland aquaculture, the current work concentrates on the potential application of remote sensing and soft computing approaches. Geospatial models of kriging and inverse distance weighing (IDW) show higher performance in estimating ammonia levels in the intensive aquaculture groundwaters with coefficient of determination (R2) values of 0.947 and 0.901, respectively. Teaching learning-based optimization (TLBO) and adaptive particle swarm optimization (APSO), two of the five soft computing techniques utilized in the study, perform better than the others. Additionally, it was found that remote sensing-based assessment tools and soft computing prediction models were both trustworthy, accurate, and easy to use. Furthermore, these methods could assist in the real-time evaluation of inland aquaculture waters by stakeholders and policymakers.

Deep optimization of water quality index and positive matrix factorization models for water quality evaluation and pollution source apportionment using a random forest model

Effective evaluation of water quality and accurate quantification of pollution sources are essential for the sustainable use of water resources. Although water quality index (WQI) and positive matrix factorization (PMF) models have been proven to be applicable for surface water quality assessments and pollution source apportionments, these models still have potential for further development in today's data-driven, rapidly evolving technological era. This study coupled a machine learning technique, the random forest model, with WQI and PMF models to enhance their ability to analyze water pollution issues. Monitoring data of 12 water quality indicators from six sites along the Minjiang River from 2015 to 2020 were used to build a WQI model for determining the spatiotemporal water quality characteristics. Then, coupled with the random forest model, the importance of 12 indicators relative to the WQI was assessed. The total phosphorus (TP), total nitrogen (TN), chemical oxygen demand (CODCr), dissolved oxygen (DO), and five-day biochemical oxygen demand (BOD5) were identified as the top five significant parameters influencing water quality in the region. The improved WQI model constructed based on key parameters enabled high-precision (R2 = 0.9696) water quality prediction. Furthermore, the feature importance of the indicators was used as weights to adjust the results of the PMF model, allowing for a more reasonable pollutant source apportionment and revealing potential driving factors of variations in water quality. The final contributions of pollution sources in descending order were agricultural activities (30.26%), domestic sewage (29.07%), industrial wastewater (26.25%), seasonal factors (6.45%), soil erosion (6.19%), and unidentified sources (1.78%). This study provides a new perspective for a comprehensive understanding of the water pollution characteristics of rivers, and offers valuable references for the development of targeted strategies for water quality improvement.

A comprehensive review on the utilization of probiotics in aquaculture towards sustainable shrimp farming

Probiotics in shrimp aquaculture have gained considerable attention as a potential solution to enhance production efficiency, disease management, and overall sustainability. Probiotics, beneficial microorganisms, have shown promising effects when administered to shrimp as dietary supplements or water additives. Their inclusion has been linked to improved gut health, nutrient absorption, and disease resistance in shrimp. Probiotics also play a crucial role in maintaining a balanced microbial community within the shrimp pond environment, enhancing water quality and reducing pathogen prevalence. This article briefly summarizes the many ways that probiotics are used in shrimp farming and the advantages that come with them. Despite the promising results, challenges such as strain selection, dosage optimization, and environmental conditions are carefully addressed for successful probiotic integration in shrimp aquaculture. The potential of probiotics as a sustainable and ecologically friendly method of promoting shrimp development and health while advancing environmentally friendly shrimp farming techniques is highlighted in this analysis. Further research is required to fully exploit probiotics' benefits and develop practical guidelines for their effective implementation in shrimp aquaculture.

Detection and prediction of pathogenic microorganisms in aquaculture (Zhejiang Province, China)

The detection and prediction of pathogenic microorganisms play a crucial role in the sustainable development of the aquaculture industry. Currently, researchers mainly focus on the prediction of water quality parameters such as dissolved oxygen for early warning. To provide early warning directly from the pathogenic source, this study proposes an innovative approach for the detection and prediction of pathogenic microorganisms based on yellow croaker aquaculture. Specifically, a method based on quantitative polymerase chain reaction (qPCR) is designed to detect the Cryptocaryon irritans (Cri) pathogenic microorganisms. Furthermore, we design a predictive combination model for small samples and high noise data to achieve early warning. After performing wavelet analysis to denoise the data, two data augmentation strategies are used to expand the dataset and then combined with the BP neural network (BPNN) to build the fusion prediction model. To ensure the stability of the detection method, we conduct repeatability and sensitivity tests on the designed qPCR detection technique. To verify the validity of the model, we compare the combined BPNN to long short-term memory (LSTM). The experimental results show that the qPCR method provides accurate quantitative measurement of Cri pathogenic microorganisms, and the combined model achieves a good level. The prediction model demonstrates higher accuracy in predicting Cri pathogenic microorganisms compared to the LSTM method, with evaluation indicators including mean absolute error (MAE), recall rate, and accuracy rate. Especially, the accuracy of early warning is increased by 54.02%.

Modelling biochemical oxygen demand in a large inland aquaculture zone of India: Implications and insights

Water quality surveillance is tough, and a specific timely management is necessary for the inland aquaculture ponds and ecology as well. Real time quality monitoring involves the study of numerous parameters includes physical (turbidity, temperature, and specific conductivity), chemical (pH, calcium, manganese, chlorides, iron, biochemical oxygen demand), and biological (bacteria and algae). It is also crucial to recognize the inter-dependence among the parameters. Alternatively, these relationships can be predicted with statistical and numerical modelling. Organic strength parameter 5-day biochemical oxygen demand (BOD) is a significant parameter to evaluate since its impact is very high on the quality of water, aquatic life, and other biological concerns. This study focuses on the prediction of BOD using six traditional and four boosting algorithms considering ten input physicochemical attributes. The attributes were fine-tuned for highly precise predictions by removing extreme values from the data set using data outlier treatment. The prediction results are compared using performance metrics such as coefficient of determination (R2), root mean square error (RMSE), mean square error (MSE), and mean absolute error (MAE). The findings revealed that boosting algorithms outperform the results of traditional models with the highest prediction accuracy. Among the boosting algorithms, eXtreme Gradient Boosting algorithm (XGBM) is found highly appropriate for the inland aquaculture waters with R2 = 0.95, RMSE = 0.31, MSE = 0.09, MAE = 0.1. Finally, this study provides a systematic evaluation of the BOD in the aquaculture waters and has a significant contribution to water management and eco-balance.

Prediction of soil salinity in the Upputeru river estuary catchment, India, using machine learning techniques

Soil salinization is a widespread phenomenon leading to land degradation, particularly in regions with brackish inland aquaculture ponds. However, because of the high geographical and temporal fluctuation, monitoring vast areas provides substantial challenges. This study uses remote sensing data and machine learning techniques to predict soil salinity. Four linear models, namely linear regression, least absolute shrinkage and selection operator (LASSO), ridge, and elastic net regression, and three boosting algorithms, namely XGB regressor, LightGBM, and CatBoost regressor, were used to predict soil salinity. Cross-validation was performed by splitting the data into 30% for model testing and 70% for model training. Multiple metrics such as determination coefficient (R2), root mean square error (RMSE), mean square error (MSE), and mean absolute error (MAE) were used to compare the performances of these algorithms. By comparison, the CatBoost regressor model performed better than the other models in both testing (MAE = 0.42, MSE = 0.28, RMSE = 0.53, R2 = 0.92) and training (MAE = 0.49, MSE = 0.36, RMSE = 0.60, R2 = 0.90) phases. Hence, the CatBoost regressor model was recommended for monitoring soil salinity in India's massive inland aquaculture zone.