Dear FISH-ECOLOGY subscribers,
As a new member of this mailing list, I conform to this nice tradition of
describing briefly my own activities. For 4 years, I've been working in
Ivory Coast (Cote d'Ivoire, West Africa) on rural fish farming development
and pond dynamics.
In these areas, extensive models (small -0.5 ha- drainable dam-lakes)
prooved to be very adequate to farmers' socio-economical environment. Thus,
fish production relies mostly on natural feeds, and the main objective of
the study is to identify and promote the productive food webs.
At first, my colleagues and myself envisaged using usual limnological
models (top down - bottom up etc.) to guide our studies. But, we
encountered several difficulties because our fish populations are dominated
by omnivorous fishes (tilapia Oreochromis niloticus and osteoglocidae
Heterotis niloticus). Moreover, food webs are not only pelagic. Benthos and
periphyton (several ponds are "acadja" ponds, that means ponds with bamboos
as artificial reefs) are also important -even essential- in the functioning
of these ecosystems.
Now, we focus on fish (tilapia) feeding behaviour, as we believe that it is
the most efficient way to identify which parts of the ecosystem are most
productive. In this work, we mainly use Dr. S.H. Bowen's very interesting
methods. By this way, we are identifying several foraging strategies,
depending on the availability of natural food. These strategies will then
be connected to the fish growth and yields.
We're in expectation of any information, address or proposal (post doc
offers for example) related to the study of omnivorous fish foraging and/or
the use of this knowledge to understand the functioning of aquatic
ecosystems.
Thank you very much,
Yours sincerely
Dr. Lionel DABBADIE
NB: This message will be sent to AQUA-L mailing list. Please forgive
cross-posting.
Departement d'Elevage et de Medecine Veterinaire du Centre de cooperation
Internationale en Recherche Agronomique pour le Développement (CIRAD-EMVT)
GAMET c/o CEMAGREF
BP 5095
34033 Montpellier cedex 1
France
Tel : (33) 4 77 55 66 21 / 4 67 04 63 65
Fax : (33) 4 67 63 57 95
E mail : [log in to unmask]
http://www.cirad.fr
http://www.mnhn.fr/mnhn/iga/
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