The Hunt for Oxylipins
In 2022, Dr. Juliette Smith, a VIMS associate professor in the Aquatic Health Sciences Department, received a NOAA Salstonstall-Kennedy Grant to better understand how a suspected harmful biproduct of phytoplankton is impacting hatchery larvae. OSH is one of three east coast hatcheries participating in the research to search for oxylipins along with Mook and Fishers Island Oyster Farm in New York. Smith’s lab is also collaborating with a University of California Berkeley lab that has complimentary special instrumentation to detect oxylipins. The objectives of this project are to characterize oxylipins and potential sources in incoming seawater at three East Coast hatcheries. Relate oxylipin abundance with hatchery performance during two seasons at MSF. And determine the effect of oxylipin on larval development and water-treatment solutions experimentally.
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Funding Support
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NOAA Salstonstall-Kennedy Grant
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Virginia Institute of Marine Science
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Project Team
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Dr. Juliette Smith, Virginia Institute of Marine Science
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Dr. Bethanie Edwards, University of California, Berkeley
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Dr. Ryan Carnegie, Virginia Institute of Marine Science
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Mook Sea Farms, Walpole, ME
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Fishers Island Oyster Farm, Fishers Island, NY
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Oyster Seed Holdings, Hudgins, VA
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Objectives
1. Characterize oxylipins and potential sources in incoming seawater at three East Coast hatcheries
2. Relate oxylipin abundance with hatchery performance during two seasons at MSF.
3. Determine the effect of oxylipin on larval development and water-treatment solutions experimentally.
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In the News:
https://www.vims.edu/newsandevents/topstories/2023/aquaculture_sk_grants.php