On 14 January 2021, PhD Student Daniel Taylor will defend his PhD thesis. The defence can be watched online.
Many coastal waters and estuaries are impacted by nutrient enrichment from human activities, leading to eutrophication. Eutrophic environments experience ecological instability, requiring multiple concerted mitigative mechanisms for nutrient reduction that are economically tenable.
Mussel aquaculture has been advocated as a means to mitigate eutrophic conditions through top-down biofiltration control of organic matter. Cultivation techniques maximizing nutrient extraction exhibit potential for remediating coastal water quality and provision of high quality protein when harvesting the mussels.
During three years, PhD Student Daniel Taylor and his colleagues have done extensive field and modeling studies to optimize nutrient extractive potential of the mussels as well as to improve our understanding of the environmental interactions of mussel farming designed for mitigating the effects of eutrophication.
Daniel Taylor concludes that this form of mussel farming can return large quantities of nutrients back to land while providing several ecosystem services which can facilitate enhanced ecological conditions of coastal waters.
He has demonstrated that increased productivity can be achieved by modifying conventional farming practices and adopting newer technologies, meaning more nutrients can be extracted in less space. He has also shown that the intensive filtration of particles by mussels in these farms increases water clarity dramatically, which is an important ecosystem service.
Impacts of deposition of organic matter to the sea floor were observed to be relatively minor, especially in relation to the total nutrient extraction potential of harvesting mussels.
About the PhD defence
Daniel Taylor, DTU Aqua will defend his PhD thesis "Mitigation Culture of Mussels: Production and Ecological Impacts” on Thursday 14 January 2021 at 14:00 (CET) via Zoom. Find link to Zoom in the box below.
Supervisors
- Principal supervisor: Senior Researcher Camille Saurel, DTU Aqua
- Co-supervisor: Professor Jens Kjerulf Petersen, DTU Aqua
- Co-supervisor: Senior Researcher Pernille Nielsen, DTU Aqua
Examiners
- Professor Torkel Gissel Nielsen, DTU Aqua
- Associate Professor Ramón Filgueira, Dalhousie University, Canada
- Dr. Suzanne Boyd Bricker, National Centers for Coastal Ocean Science, USA
Chairperson at defence
- Professor Karen Timmermann, DTU Aqua
Learn more
A popular science summary of the thesis can be downloaded here
A copy of the thesis is available by e-mail on request. Please contact Karin Stubgaard, stub@aqua.dtu.dk.
It is possible to attend Daniel Taylor’s defence on Zoom using this link: https://dtudk.zoom.us/s/69198824558
Please, enter the meeting 10 minutes prior to the defence proceedings are scheduled to start.
All participants are muted per default, but we ask you to double check that both camera and microphone are turned off at all times.
There will be instructions regarding the proceedings in the beginning of the defence.