Fairy shrimps (Anostraca, Crustacea): new opportunities for water recycling and aquaculture in arid regions
1998
Beladjal, L. | Dierckens, K. | Mertens, J. (Universiteit Gent (Belgium). Lab. Ecologie)
In the Sahara - Sahel and the Mediterranean regions of Africa, precipitation is erratic and low. This unpredictability is the cause of the remarkable diversity of the fauna of ephemeral pools. Fairy shrimps are relatively small crustaceans (0.5-5 cm), adapted to living in that harsh environment of temporary water bodies. They have the characteristics of opportunistic pioneers: very fast growth and very short generation time. They produce cysts (resting eggs) that survive for several years after the water has dried out, and hatch almost immediately after inundation. To the shrimps the ephemeral pools are "islands in space and time". There is little gene flow, so dispersion is low from one area to another. Cysts must be able to travel through time from one period of favourable conditions to the next. Fairy shrimps draw the attention for two main reasons: 1. Their cysts are easy to store, which renders them interesting for commercial mass production for aquaculture. In freshwater aquaculture there is a growing interest in the use of this untapped biological resource as life food for fish larvae and prawn. 2. Several species could be used in tertiary purification of waste water. Their capability to filter bacteria and plankton from eutrophicated water makes them ideal for bioconversion of waste products into biomass. Upscaling laboratory cultures to economically acceptable proportions may finally result in a viable proposal for technology transfer to rural development in less developed regions.
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Эту запись предоставил University of Liège