报告题目：“Smart” Oyster aquaculture for a changing climate in China
报告人：Vengatesen Thiyagarajan副教授（香港大学）
主持人：张锐教授
报告时间：2023年7月21日周五10：30
报告地点：致知楼706
报告摘要：
China accounts >85% of global edible oyster production, which is and expected to produce even more in coming years to meet global demand for seafood protein by using this carbon-neutral coastal aquaculture technology. This massive industry is, however, facing severe challenges due to simultaneously increasing demand for high quality meat using indigenously developed oyster seed collection, hatchery and cultivation technologies – especially, when oysters in this part of the world are encountering unprecedented mass mortality at the time harvest in winter – the so called “winter mass mortality”. This mass mortality is not only directly affecting the quality of oysters produced but also seriously affecting wild seed production and collection. The collected few wild seeds also experience mortality and their performance often unpredictable. Thus, the sustainable aquaculture in the region is now heavily depending on development of hatchery technology that suite local growers and their century-old grower’s experience on selecting fast-growing and disease resistant wild populations for seed production in eco-hatchery. In this talk, we will discuss about the inherent cultural and nutritional value of the Hong Kong oysters (Rajan), and the challenges this sector facing due to climate change and multiple-stressors, especially ocean acidification (Xin Dang). Though the reason for mass mortality and thus uncertain production is not clear, seasonal shift in temperature, salinity and pH due to climate change appears to be involved in weakening oyster immune response and thus make them vulnerable to opportunistic pathogens (David Lee). End the talk by showing how our “university, industry and grower’s network and cooperation” is developing and transferring the grower-centered oyster hatchery technology that are recently getting popular in Hong Kong and found to be more effective and sustainable, especially in South China.
报告人简介：
Vengatesen T (Rajan) is currently a Director of Hong Kong Oyster Hatchery & Innovation Research Unit (HKO-HIRU), Resident Scientist in the Swire Institute of Marine Science and Associate Professor in the School of Biological Sciences and also Assistant Dean for Experiential Learning in the Faculty of Science at The University of Hong Kong (HKU). He is one of the “outstanding teaching award” winners of HKU and an internationally recognized larval biology, oyster aquaculture and ocean acidification (OA) researcher. He has developed multiplex larval proteomic technologies and identified novel proteins involved in larval metamorphosis and OA-adaptation and identified the winners under OA. His graduate students from science, engineering and biomedical background are regularly using cross-disciplinary tools for their interdisciplinary research. Those results have been published in >100 papers; and funded by 17 competitive grants exceeding HK$25 million. Rajan is well known for his outstanding success rate in RGC-GRF grants, and he has been regularly conducting grant writing workshops for colleagues. RGC recognized this talent and appointed him as one of the Panel members for Biology and Medicine. He has proactively involved in regionally and internationally coordinated OA research, and has established a conference series “Interdisciplinary Symposium on Ocean Acidification and Climate Change” which brings in experts from various discipline to identify knowledge gaps and to address them using interdisciplinary collaboration. Rajan has established HKO-HIRU to develop aquaculture technologies using marker and machine learning assisted digital breeding technology. His research outcomes are also well disseminated in government, industry, oyster associations and the general public, with the contribution to several news reports and interview to local and international media. Rajan is known for his high-energy enthusiastic research talks with innovative ideas, i.e. Key note talk in Gordon Research Conferences. Recently, he is focused on translational research technologies for sustainable oyster aquaculture in China.
