2014 Planktonology Invited Lecture Series 2
Marine Planktonic and Benthic Copepod Culture: Understanding the
Reproduction and Effects of Environmental Factors
by
Assoc. Prof. Dr. Zaleha Kassim
Programme Head, SmSn Gunaan (Perikanan)
School of Fisheries and Aquaculture Sciences
Universiti Malaysia Terengganu
Organized by
MMB3302 (Planktonology) Class
Semester II 2013-2014
On
March 31, 2014 (Monday)
At
3:00 to 5:00 PM
Auditorium 2
Kompleks Kuliah Pusat, UMT
---------|||----------
Marine Planktonic and Benthic Copepod Culture: Understanding the Reproduction and Effects of Environmental Factors
ABSTRACT
Copepods are among the most abundant and important component of aquatic invertebrates in many marine and freshwater ecosystem. They become the major biomass in zooplankton community in the water column, and they form significant entity of benthic community structure on bottom sediment. They are the major food source for organisms in higher tropic level such as juvenile fishes and shrimps, thus they become link between primary producer and other consumers in the natural food-web. Among the copepod group, harpacticiod copepods are known to be mostly benthic, live on bottom habitat such as sediment or bottom vegetation. They could live as epi-(dwelling on the bottom surface), endo-(burrowing into bottom surface) or mesobenthos (living between grain particles or in pore water in the bottom sediment). As they lead a benthic living mode, they depend on the diets available on bottom habitat including phytobenthos, microbes and detritus. Other copepods, the calanoids and cyclopoids are mostly plankton. T
heir main diets are the microalgae found in the water column. Due to the differences in the living mode and life history, rearing technique for benthic and planktonic copepods needs different approach. This presentation will discuss on the important aspects in rearing copepods under laboratory condition. A benthic harpacticoid, Amphiascoides negletus, and a planktonic cyclopoid, Apocyclops ramkhamhaengi were used as the test animal to understand the effect of some environmental factors on the reproduction of copepods.
------|||------
My interest in copepods started during my undergraduate when I took an ecological subject on zooplankton. I had a precious chance to explore further in the world of copepods when I did my master thesis (1996) which was converted to PhD programme a year later and graduated in 2001. Iam an active JSPS member under the theme biodiversity group particularly as copepod expert.
I work together with Professor Nozumo Iwasaki of Kochi University and Professor Tatsuki Toda of Soka University, Japan for wild copepods and corals health in Bidong Island, Terengganu since 2004. I also share my interest with Professor Susumu Ohtsuka from Hiroshima University, Japan to understand the life cycle of parasitic copepod infestating cultured fishes in aquaculture pond. I taught sever
al courses related to the aquatic environment including Aquatic Ecology, Biology of Aquatic Invertebrates and Ecophysiology of Aquatic Organism at the undergraduate level and Live Feeds Culture for postgraduates. I enjoyed teaching the students on how to understand ecology and other biological aspect of invertebrates as they are important biological entity in fishery. I usually used my research findings and experimental design to create awareness and interest on the subject. To date, I managed to secure important grants which are two Techno-fund from Ministry of Agriculture (RM1.5millions) and a Knowledge Transfe
r Grant from Ministry of Higher Education (RM0.126millions) beside the normal e-
science and fundamental research grants (RM1.7millions). With the funds, I guided several postgraduate students to carry out their research. The findings of this work have been published in books and chapters in books. Scientific reports on copepods have been published in scientific international journals and other related findings on copepods had been published in the international symposium or conference proceedings.
With the valuable experience gained during the research and teaching activity in the Marine Science Department and Institute of Oceanography - INOS (2001-2006), I managed to get involved in consultation for environmental impact assessment projects mostly for Petronas Carigali and other related petrochemical company (2003-2006) which brought in money of about
RM0.5millions (15% to UMT). I was appointed as consultant for several environmental / ecological evaluation in Terengganu and Johor. Based on my experience in the Institute of Tropical Aquaculture – AKUATROP (2006-2012) I frequently deliver advice and talk on aquaculture practises and impact on the environment, live feeds and larval rearing and site evaluation by several technical agencies such as Fisheries Department of Malaysia (DoF) and
Farmer’s Organization Authority of Malaysia (LPP). My deep interest in the research of copepods brought me to compete and test my innovation in many international innovation competitions. I won several gold, silver and bronze awards in ITEX, Pecipta, BioMalaysia, Geneva and SIIF competition. I managed to win the best inventor for copepod culture using organic waste in a competition organized by WiPo, Kippo and MyIPO in 2011. Highlight from the media (e.g. The Star, Bernama, Utusan) of my innovation attract documentary producers from local media such as RTM and TV3 to invite me to participate in their popular segments such as ‘Anugerah Alam’ and ‘Simfoni Alam’. I am continuously ambitious to guide students and young researchers to wholly devoted, explore, innovate and impart knowledge for the wellbeing of the community and nation.
-------|||------
Programme
3:00 PM Arrival of Guests and Participants
3:15 PM Prayer
3:20 PM Welcome Address by Assoc. Prof. Dr. Siti Aishah Abdullah, Lecturer MMB 3302 (Planktonology)
3:30 PM Marine Planktonic and Benthic Copepod Culture: Understanding the Reproduction and Effects of Environmental Factors
4:30 PM Open Forum
5:00 PM Closing