Water quality in aquaculture

• Apply laboratory safety principles and good scientific practice in water chemistry analyses.
• Describe fundamental chemistry concepts related to aquaculture water quality.
• Calculate masses, concentrations, and dilutions of substrates and chemical reaction rates.
• Interpret and analyse redox equations and reaction stoichiometry.
• Explain the connections between microbial groups and processes and physical and chemical water quality.
• Select and justify appropriate water quality parameters for monitoring and analysing water quality in aquaculture facility
• Design , conduct, and evaluate small-scale laboratory experiments and field sampling in aquaculture facilities
• Integrate physical, chemical, and biological data to diagnose and predict changes in aquaculture water quality

Water quality management in aquaculture is important, as the organisms produced in aquaculture systems, such as fish, shellfish, or algae, are sensitive to changes in physical, chemical, and biological parameters. Therefore, the water quality must be monitored and controlled to ensure good health, productivity, and quality of the organisms produced. This course consists of lectures providing the theoretical background on water quality parameters and fundamental processes, laboratory demonstrations and exercises to get hands-on experience on measuring water quality, and calculation exercises and group work assignments, where the theory is applied into real-life aquaculture conditions.

Lectures, individual and group exercises (calculations, problem solving exercises, and oral and written assignments), laboratory exercises.