October 2025
I just finished to lead the 7th cohort of our unique joint master program between Gothenburg, Holár and Nord Universities for their on-site week in Sweden.
17 students from 12 different nationalities visited the two research stations, Tjärnö and Kristineberg, as well as our industrial partners Smögenlax, Scanfjörd and Nordic seafarm, where they learned about low-trophic aquaculture and closed systems on-land done in Sweden.
During their stay, they also participated in our traditional cooking classes, where they cooked and told stories about their dish, made with seafood.
We were joined by my collaborators from the CHESS-lab at Hiroshima University, Zachary Williams and Manuel Soto Calvo as part of our MIRAI seed-funded project ‘Sustainabuoy’, where we aim to develop smart buoys to measure water quality in low-trophic aquaculture sites.
September-October 2025
Greetings from Japan!
Two full weeks this fall, starting with a study visit at Hiroshima University at the laboratory of my collaborators Prof. Kindaichi to work on our MARTINIS project, and the CHESS-lab at Hiroshima University to present my work within hashtagSWEMARC and start our hasMIRAI seed-funded project systainabuoy. We deployed their biophysical ocean buoy (BoB, www.chessbuoy.com) for monitoring Seawater in an oyster farm in Hiroshima bay. We will later test it in our low trophic aquaculture sites in Sweden.
Then I headed for the World Expo in Osaka for two days of activity at the Nordic Pavilion.
On the 9th of October I attended the MIRAI day: Innovating for the Future: Strengthening Sweden-Japan Collaboration Across Academia and Industry, where I presented the research areas and projects of the Global Challenge Team 3 on resilient cities and communities and discussed my on-going projects within MIRAI.
On the 10th, I attended the Sustainability Summit organized by Business Sweden, in presence of her Majesty, Victoria, crown princess of Sweden.
May-June 2025
I am grateful to Jordbruksverket, SLU aquaculture and the MIRAI seed-funding project for their generous contribution to my research. I was recently awarded three grants from these organizations to continue my research on developing sustainable aquaculture in Sweden.
‘Övervakning av fiskhälsa i landbaserade fiskodlingar med hjälp artificiell intelligens’ (Monitoring fish health in land-based fish farms using artificial intelligence). In this project, we use a combination of novel technologies, hydrophones, underwater cameras with advanced data analysis systems in order to provide an overall, objective welfare score in real-time, allowing the farmers to take quick actions. This project is a collaboration between universities and research institute (GU, SWEMARC, IVL, SLU), fish farmers (Gårdsfisk, Smögenlax) and the monitoring company TiVa. This project is led by my colleague Jacob Andrén from IVL, here presenting our project at the project presentation meeting. We received 5 million SEK from Jordbruksverket for this project for the period 2025-2028.
Sustainabuoy. In this collaboration between the universities of Hiroshima (CHESS-lab) and SWEMARC, we will develop low-cost smart buoy for the monitoring of water quality in our Swedish farms (118,000 SEK from MIRAI seed-funding).
CAREfeed. In this project, we will assess the nutritional value and health benefit of fucoxanthin as feed additive in rainbow trout. My colleague from SLU, Aleksandar Vidakovic will develop the feeds and we will later perform our feeding trial in Gothenburg. For this project, we received 96,000 SEK from SLU aquaculture.
Congratulations to the Master students from the Biology, Sea and Society and MAR-BIO programs at the University of Gothenburg who received their diploma this week. Special congratulations to my master students of this year who I had the pleasure to supervise this year: Emma, Maria, Haya, Liz and Nayomi.
New article published in Aquaculture, the first one from her PhD study of my colleague and friend Mica Andersson. Congratulations! In this study, we evaluated the effect of the addition of Ulva fenestrata in a recirculating aquaculture system containing rainbow trout and Atlantic wolffish. In this study, we showed that co-farming the fish with sea lettuce improved water quality, enhanced sea lettuce growth and protein content, and supported fish welfare, demonstrating a sustainable IMTA approach without compromising fish health and welfare.
April 2025
It was again my pleasure to represent SWEMARC at the Gothenburg Science festival this year where I explained how a recirculating aquaculture system works with our 3D-printed model, and where I promoted low-trophic aquaculure models and made tasting of different algae products.
March 2025
Thank you Aquaculture 2025 and New Orleans for a wonderful conference.
The 2025 Triennial was a successful meeting where I had four presentations on stage, presenting my work on anammox in RAS at the Aquaculture Engineering Society session, my work on the validation of the hemoglobin analyzer Hb 801 for fish blood, and the MAR-BIO master program and our project on integrating aquaponics in Swedish 8th grade high school curriculum.
I had the pleasure to chair the session on ‘Session Aquaculture Education, Extension and Information Transfer’ on Sunday 9th, a full day with 24 presentations followed by enthusiastic discussions.
In addition, my colleagues from ETHOS presented our non-profit organization and our values, and my colleague from Gothenburg presented our work on zebrafish transportation at the workshop on aquatic animal model husbandry, organized by Aquaneering.
February 2025
New article published in Fish Physiology and Biochemistry: Aquaculture potential of Atlantic wolffish (Anarhichas lupus): stress and physiological responses to acute handling. In this study, led by my friend and former colleague as her last PhD experiment, Dr Ida Hedén, we have investigated the stress response of Atlantic wolffish subjected to acute stress (chasing and air exposure), and have demonstrated that this species appears to exhibit a relatively moderate stress response, with a slow and low primary stress response and minimal secondary effects following husbandry-related acute stress.
The full text is available online here.
January 2025
On January 31, I co-organized in collaboration with the universities Kyushu and Umeå a match-making workshop from the GCT 3: Resilient Cities and Communities. This workshop aimed at connecting early career researchers from Sweden and Japan in preparation of the first seed-funding call of the MIRAI 2024-26. I presented my two current MIRAI projects and shared some tips and advices.
On January 22, I successfully delivered my Docent presentation at the University of Gothenburg ‘Fish health and welfare in recirculating aquaculture system‘. I thank the committee, my colleagues, friends and family who attended the presentation on site and on zoom.
Check out the latest issue in the Journal of Fish Biology: Welfare and resilience in aquaculture which I had the pleasure to co-edit with Hans van de Vis.
In this issue, nine articles where we look at several aspects of resilience and welfare in current aquaculture practices, including novel species, alternative feed, policies and more. It has been a good experience, and I am grateful to all the authors and the JFB team for their contribution, patience and help.
The special issue can be found here.
New article published in Fishes: Heart Rate Monitoring During Behavioral Stress Tests in Bold and Shy Rainbow Trout (Oncorhynchus mykiss). In this study, we have shown that heart rate monitoring in rainbow trout reliably indicated stress levels, regardless of individual behavioral phenotypes like boldness or shyness. This study demonstrated that heart rate can serve as a valid proxy for the autonomic stress response in unrestrained fish during various stressful events. This study is a collaboration between SLU and different groups at GU, under the supervision of my colleague Lynne Sneddon.
December 2024
New article published in the special issue of Water: Advanced Use of Anammox Process in Wastewater Treatment. In this study, we have demonstrated, at a laboratory scale, that the marine anammox species Candidatus Scalindua was effective at removing ammonium and nitrite in synthetic RAS wastewater under high nitrate levels typically encountered in RAS. This is our latest step in our project aiming at using these bacteria in RAS. The full text is available online here.
I am happy and honored to feature the December issue of GU journalen where I describe my work in the MIRAI project and how it boosted my career.
This month and earlier this year I was also happy to host two PhD students from my MIRAI collaboration projects as guest visitors, Naoki Fujii, from the Environmental Preservation Engineering Laboratory (Hiroshima University), and Johanna Johansson, from the Marine Climate Change Unit (MCCU) in OIST, Okinawa. Naoki visited us for six weeks to work on my anammox project, Johanna stayed with us for four days, she presented her PhD project and her research unit and learned our techniques to measure welfare in fish (ELISA, cortisol RIA) and water quality measurements.
November 2024
Presenting online what is it is to be a researcher at the Forum Scientifique of the Engineering school (Ecole de Biologie Industrielle) of my former student Lise Brault, president of her diving school club ‘PLOUF’. Lise was with us over the summer, working on two experiments, one on the impact of high nitrate levels on marine anammox and one comparing the impact of different electrofishing gears on the physiology and welfare of rainbow trout. Stay tuned for our upcoming results!
October 2024
In the week 43, I was pleased to welcome and organize this year’s campus week in Sweden of the Nordic Master’s Programme in Sustainable Production and Utilization of Marine Bioresources. This year, 21 students from 14 nationalities visited our two research stations, Kristineberg and Tjärnö, and our industrial partners, Scanfjörd and Smögenlax, who focus on low-trophic open aquaculture and fed aquaculture in recirculating systems.
In addition to these visits, the students worked on designing their ideal aquaculture systems and, to conclude the week, participated in a cooking activity, using seafood to prepare dishes from their home countries and tell a story about it. Now they are off to their home university (19 are from Gothenburg this year), before starting their exchange semester next spring at Hólar (Iceland) or Nord University (, Norway).
New article accepted in Aquaculture nutrition nutrition: ‘Seaweed Fly Larvae Cultivated on Macroalgae Side Streams: A Novel Marine Protein and Omega-3 Source for Rainbow Trout’. This article is the last study from my friend and former colleague, Dr Niklas Warwas, who graduated last November. In this study, we evaluated the potential of Coelopa frigida larvae (seaweed fly larvae, SWFL) as a feed ingredient for rainbow trout, finding that SWFL-fed fish showed higher growth rates than those fed black soldier fly larvae (BSFL) and similar growth rates to fish fed traditional fish meal diets. SWFL diets demonstrated promising nutritional value and compatibility with circular production systems, offering a sustainable alternative to marine-derived feed ingredients. The full text can be found here.
September 2024
Kick-off meeting of the MIRAI 3.0 hosted by Umeå University and Kyushu University. I am happy to be part of the Challenge 3: Resilient cities and communities – policies, strategies, local government and urban planning (Part of SDG 11) as representative of the University of Gothenburg. Looking forward building new connections with Japan.
August 2024
Presenting at the EAS/WAS conference in Copenhagen in the welfare and the RAS session my work on the validation of the hemocue Hb 801 to measure hemoglobin in fish blood, and the latest results of the MARTINIS project.
July 2024
Happy holidays! Some good news before taking a small break: two new articles and a new MIRAI funding.
Two new articles accepted during the break, porting my total to 30. One in my upcoming special issue on fish and resilience in aquaculture, to be published in the Journal of Fish Biology: ‘Validation of the HemoCue Hb 801 portable haemoglobin analyser for fish blood’. In this study, my first as last author, I have designed and supervised the validation of the latest portable haemoglobin device by the Swedish company HemoCue, the Hb 801 for the use in fish blood. Together with my students and colleagues at the University of Gothenburg, we have shown that this device can be used without correction factor for three fish species, important in the Swedish aquaculture landscape, rainbow trout, Nile tilapia and Atlantic wolffish. For this study, we have made good use of animal tissues, as none of the animals were sacrificed specifically for our study, but we rather shared tissuses from terminal experiments carried by our colleagues. The full text can be found here.
In the other article published in ‘Ecology and Evolution‘, ‘Local variation in stress response of juvenile anadromous brown trout, led by my colleagues from the Salmonid Ecology Group, PhD student Madeleine Berry and Professor Johan Höjesjö, we have shown that there are some variations in the body morphology and the physiological stress response between two sub-population of the juvenile anadroumous brown trout, located downstream and 2 km upstream in the Haga å stream. For this study, I was responsible for the blood sampling and analysis of haematological and plasma parameters. It is always a pleasure to go to the field with my colleagues from the SEG group. Stay tuned for our upcoming studies on short and long migration and on electrofishing. The full text can be found here.
On July 4, we got the wonderful news that the next phase of the MIRAI project, now coordinated by Umeå University was awarded 10 million SEK from STINT, as strategic funding. What a great start for this new phase of the MIRAI project, where I was part of the writing team, and for which I am now an active member of the ‘Challenge 3: Resilient cities and communities – policies, strategies, local government and urban planning (Part of SDG 11)’ research team.
May 2024
New article accepted in my upcoming special issue on fish and resilience in aquaculture, to be published in the Journal of Fish Biology. ‘High protein requirements of juvenile Atlantic wolffish, Anarhichas lupus: Effects of dietary protein levels on growth, health, and welfare’. In this study, done in collaboration with my former colleague and friend, Dr James Hinchcliffe, as part of the NOMACULTURE project, we have shown that juvenile. Atlantic wolffish need at least a 50% protein inclusion for optimal growth and welfare. The full text can be found here.
April 2024
This month was full of outreach activities. On April 9, I had the pleasure to welcome students from the Kungsbackas gymnasieskolor and their Erasmus guests from Portugal, Belgium and Italy. I gave a short presentation on our research in sustainable aquaculture before they visited the aquarium facilities and the herbarium in Natrium with my colleagues and myself as guides.
Then the same week, on April 11, I organized two activities during the ‘praoveckan‘, where students from grade 8 and 9 got to learn what it was to be a researcher in aquaculture, before engaging in some activities. First I told them how to make a standard curve before they made one in order to calculate the glucose concentration in fish plasma. Then my master students gave them a tour of the animal facilities and our anammox lab, where they learned how to measure water quality.
On April 19 and 20 I took part in the Gothenburg international science festival, held in Norstand. I have shown different aquatic species encountered in the Swedish west coast and presented our work on sustainable aquaculture. In addition, this year I have organized a special activity where I have organized a small workshop ‘Odla fisk i en loop‘ (‘Growing fish in a loop’), where we have built a mini recirculating aquaculture system (RAS) in order to present this system to the public. The aim was for the people to connect the different parts of the system together to understand how the different cleaning steps take place.
On April 24, I presented orally our MARTINIS project at the ‘Innovations for the Blue Planet‘ conference in Stockholm, in the session ‘Circularity in water management’, while Niklas Warwas presented his PhD work where we investigated the potential of several side-streams to as alternative protein sources in fish meal.
March 2024
Participating in the Participating in the Nationella vattenbrukskonferensen 2024 (the Swedish national aquaculture conference) in Umeå. Happy to present my research on alternative filtering technologies in RAS and my MARTINIS project, using anammox bacteria and discuss with the local aquaculture community about the latest advances and future opportunities.
December 2023
New article accepted in my upcoming special issue on fish and resilience in aquaculture, to be published in the Journal of Fish Biology. In this study, we looked at impact of starvation on the larval development of black rockfish, an important inshore commercial and recreational species in China. This study was led by my friend and colleague, Dr Haoyu Guo. The full text can be found here.
November 2023
Final meeting of the MIRAI 2.0 project in Umeå: the reseach and Innovation week 2023. Busy week where I had a poster and a 3 minute pitch about my collaborative project MARTINIS, initiated within the frame of the MIRAI 1.0 project in 2018. I also presented our new collaboration within the MIRAI 2.0 with OIST and the unit of Prof Ravasi, which we visited in September (see below). It is always nice to see my colleagues and friends during these gatherings and discuss potential future collaborations.
October 2023
Campus week of the 2023-25 MAR-BIO cohort, the Nordic Master’s Programme in Sustainable Production and Utilization of Marine Bioresources program, which I am co-course leader. During this week, twelve students (out of the fourteen), from ten countries got to visit our industrial partners (Smögenlax, Scanfjord, Nordic Seafarm, Swedish Algae Factory) and our two research stations (the Tjärnö Marine Laboratory and the Kristineberg Center), where they get to see our different infrastructure and get to learn about our research within our research centers (SWEMARC and Blå Mat), to get ideas for their future master project. In addition, they get to cook from raw seafood material collected at our partners and tell their story through this cooking class.
During the visit, I was honored to be asked by our colleague and friend, Prof. Barry Costa Pierce, to be on the Advisory Board of his non-profit company ETHOS (Earth Ocean Foods Systems). Looking forward being part of this journey to help developing aquaculture more sustainably and making it more accessible.
New article accepted in my upcoming special issue on fish and resilience in aquaculture, to be published in the Journal of Fish Biology. In this study, we looked at side-streams from the fisheries industry: sprat trimmings (heads, frames, viscera), marinated herring (fillets) and mackerel in tomato sauce (fillets and sauce) as alternative protein sources to replace fishmeal in fish food.
Participation in the 6th Nordic RAS workshop, held in Tromso (Norway). Four years after the meeting in Berlin, it was nice to hear about the latest advances in my field of studies.
September 2023
I also took this opportunity to be in Japan to visit my collaborator and friend, Prof- Tomonori Kindaichi, at Hiroshima University, to analyse some samples from our on-going experiment on the impact of nitrate on anammox performance and community changes. Prof. Kindaichi and his colleagues, Prof Oshiki (Okkaido University) and Prof. Awata (Osaka University) visited our new facilities in Gothenburg earlier in the month. Together, we organised a seminar on anammox research, visited our industrial partner, Smögenlax, and discussed our current experimental results and planned for future collaborations.
August 2023
Moving our facilities to a new building. After working for almost seven years at ‘Zoologen’, it is time to say goodbye to this building, built in the 1960s and which was my second home for almost seven years. Looking forward for continuing and startting new collaborations in our new building, ‘Natrium‘.
May 2023
New article accepted for publication, ‘Two-phase microalgae cultivation for RAS water remediation and high-value biomass production‘, a study conducted by my former colleague at BioEnv, Valeria Villanova, where we tested three microalgae species Nannochloropis granulata, Phaeodactylum tricornutum and Chlorella sp (Csp) for their ability to remove nitrogen and phosphate from a RAS. This article is part of the Aquatic Photosynthetic Organisms under Global Change topic of Frontiers. The article is now in production and can be soon found here.
Congratulations to the 2021-2023 cohort of the MAR-BIO program students who successfully defended their thesis and will soon receive their diploma. It was a pleasure to teach you and be involved in so many interesting projects. A special though to Chiara, Rebecca, Elin and Kelly with who I have worked closely, and of course Ebuka who did his project on the impact of high concentrations of nitrate on the marine anammox Candidatus Scalindua this year. Well done!
Taking part in the ‘Upptäckarklubbens: Research-at-a-glance‘. During this afternoon activity, the children get to do experiments, test hypotheses and learn more about various natural science phenomena. I presented aquaculture and the work on SWEMARC to children in grades 4 and 5. In addition, I organized a small activity where the children had to guess which was the main ingredient in the different alternative fishfeed ingredients they saw smelled and touched (marine yeast, algae, mackerel in tomato sauce, kelp fly larvae) . They really liked the activity. Although I did not win the jury price with my short presentation on aquaculture, but to be fair it was hard to compete against research on Mars :).
April 2023
Representing SWEMARC at the Science festival in Nordstan, presenting on the big stage my work on closed-containment systems on-land and the current status of aquaculture in Sweden, and showing the unknown delicacies of the sea that we are promoting with our project ‘Scary seafood‘.
March 2023
Congratulations to my friend and colleague, Niklas Warwas, PhD in our group, with his first publication ‘Marine yeast (Candida sake) cultured on herring brine side streams is a promising feed ingredient and omega-3 source for rainbow trout (Oncorhynchus mykiss)‘ that just got accepted in Aquaculture.
The overall aim of Niklas project is to look for sustainable protein sources to replace fisheal in fish feed. In this study, we investigated different inclusion rates of marine yeast as potential replacement for fishmeal, and we also investigated the potential of this ingredient as an immunostimulant. This is the first publication of many that we will have in common this year, as Niklas is defending his thesis at the end of the year, in which he has conducted no less than five feeding trials. Stay tuned for more publications on alternative ingredients as fishmeal replacement in 2023 (Picture from AES 2019).
The online version is available here.
February 2023
I am very happy to announce the publication of our second research article from our MARTINIS project: ‘Candidatus Scalindua, a Biological Solution to Treat Saline Recirculating Aquaculture System Wastewater‘, where we slowly adaptedthe marine anammox species Candidatus Scalindua to the wastewater of a recirculating aquaculture system (RAS). It is the follow-up study of our first project where we exposed this bacteria suddendly to RAS waster, and noticed a diminution in the nitrogen removal rate, but no changes in bacterial community composition. In this follow-up study, we have shown that by gradually exposing this bacteria to RAS wastewater, we could maintain a good removal rate. In addition, we have shown that, unlike for freshwater anammox straings, trace element supplementation is not necessary for the normal functioning of marine anammox strains.
This article is part of the Special issue from Processes, ‘Wastewater and Waste Treatment: Overview, Challenges and Current Trends (Volume II)‘. I would like to thank all of our collaborators, sponsors, and the editors & reviewers from this special issue.
The online version is available here.
Graphical abstract:
January-February 2022
I am happy to participate in master project of our MARBIO-student Chiara Fasoli, within the SWEMARC-SMAK project, led by together with Snuttan Sundell and Carl-Johan Skogh. This project is aiming at communicating and integrating the results of SWEMARC’s research into everyday life, in order to create a greater understanding of the necessity of sustainable aquaculture in a future sustainable production of nutritious food. In this particular project, Chiara is in charge of setting up an aquaponic system with 8 graders at local school (Fridaskolan), and develop a protocol for teachers who wish to set up a similar system. I am helping out with the building of the system and we welcomed ca 70. students at zoologen at the beginning of February to show them our research facilities and our aquariums, and to talk about our research on multitrophic systems.
Pictures, Chiara Fasoli
New project grant:
– I am very grateful to VINNOVA and Region Västra Götaland for funding our HIFAI project, a continuation of our previous Strategic innovation program for process industrial IT and automation – PiiA. We aim atidentifying how AI and new technologies can be further developed to enable a more ecologically and economically sustainable production of fish and seafood in land-based facilities (3,300,000 SEK). This project is a collaboration between our industrial partners (Smögenlax, Gårdfisk), the University of Gothenburg, Innovatum and the Swedish Environmental Research Institute (IVL), coordinated by my colleagues and main applicants Jacob Andrén and Torbjörn Johansson (IVL).
November 2022
I am very happy to be back in Japan after more than two years. After visiting Hiroshima University and my collaborator and friend, Prof. Tomonori Kindaichi, I had the honored to meet his Excellency, Pereric Högbergto at the reception of the INTSAM funded project delegation at the Swedish embassy in Tokyo (13/11), and to represent GU and SWEMARC at the Research and Innovation week at Kyushu University (15-18/11). During this week, together with my colleague and friend Federico Micolucci, we presented the advances of our MARTINIS project during the Sustainability session. In addition, I had the pleasure to be selected to part of the discussion panel on Research and Ethics, where I discussed the topic of animal testing. It was a pleasure to meet again face to face and initiate with many researchers from different universities and disciplines in both countries. I am looking forward for follow-up discussions and potential collaborations. I would like to thank the Kyushu university staff for organizing this meeting and our generous sponsors for this trip INSTAM, VINNOVA and STINT.
New article accepted for publication, ‘Pain Recognition in Fish’, the first article published together with my friend and colleague Dr. Lynne Sneddon (main author). This article will be part of the special issue ‘‘Pain Management’ of the journal Veterinary Clinics of North America: Exotic Animal Practice, edited by David Sanchez-Migallon Guzman and to be published in January 2023.
The online version can be found hereStay tuned for the final version in January.
June-July 2022
Presenting at the 14th edition of the ICBF 2022in Montpellier (28/6-1/7), the results of the experiment led by my PhD colleague, Niklas Warwas, on the valorization of aquaculture and fisheries side-streams in order to find new sustainable alternatives to fish meal oils in aquaculture feed. The FEL group was well represented with presentations from my colleagues Niklas Warwas and James Hinchcliffe, and a poster from Ida Héden. The first international conference in over two years, it was nice to see old colleagues and friends from the fish world.
New article accepted for publication in Evolutionary applications: ‘Invader at the edge – genomic origins and physiological differences of round gobies across a steep urban salinity gradient’.
This work is a collaborative project with my colleagues from the University of Gothenburg, led by Dr leon Green. In this study, we investigated the physiological capacity of the invasive round goby (Neogobius melanostomus) to acclimatize to environments with different salinities. For this purpose, we used 12 937 SNPs to identify the genetic origin and diversity of three sites along the salinity gradient and round goby from western, central and northern Baltic Sea, as well as north European rivers. Fish from two sites from the extreme ends of the gradient were further acclimated to freshwater and seawater, and tested for respiratory and osmoregulatory physiology. Our results show genotypic and phenotypic differences over short spatial scales across this steep salinity gradient. These patterns of the physiologically robust round goby are likely driven by multiple introductions into the high salinity site, and a process of sorting, likely based on behaviour or selection, along the gradient. The article is in press and can be found here.
New project grants: I am very grateful to the Helge Axelsson foundation (30,000 SEK) who renewed its trust in me, and the J. Gust. The Richert foundation & SWECO (100,000 SEK) for awarding me two new grants to continue my research on alternative feed ingredients for aquaculture to be used in a feeding trial planned in the fall, stay tuned!)
Launch of a new journal: Frontiers in aquaculture, where I have been invited to be a review editor for the section Production biology. Don’t hesitate to submit your abstract to this section before August 31th.
May 2022
New article accepted for publication in Biology: ‘Low Holding Densities Increase Stress Response and Aggression in Zebrafish’.
This work is a collaborative project with my colleagues from the University of Gothenburg. In this study, we investigated the optimal housing densities of zebrafish in laboratory conditions, in order to better understand how holding density affects zebrafish behaviour and physiology. For this purpose, we evaluated the welfare of zebrafish housed at different densities (1 to 16 fish/L of water), over a period of 9 weeks. We observed that fish housed at the lowest density (1 fish/L) showed higher levels of aggression, spent more time in the top zone of the tank, and secreted more of the stress hormone cortisol in the water. Our data indicate that zebrafish should not be kept at densities of 1 fish/L, or lower, to ensure good welfare of the animals. We believe that these findings are important and will help to refine housing protocols for zebrafish.
This study was the master project of Mica, under the supervision of Petronella Kettunen. Since then, Mica has joined our group as a new PhD from the Blue food project (https://www.bluefood.se/), and we are now collaborating on new projects aiming at developing inland IMTA systems. Stay tuned for updates on our project. In the meanwhile, you can find our article here.
March 2022
Presenting our work on RAS and our latest results from the MARTINIS project at the Swedish national aquaculture conference in Strömstad (15-16 March; Nationella vattenbrukskonferensen). Congratulations to my friends and colleagues who represented SWEMARC and presented their work promoting the sustainable development if the aquaculture sector in Sweden. First conference in two years, it was very nice to see live presentations again and discuss with potential collaborators.
January 2022
Happy new year! I am very pleased and proud to welcome a new member in our family. It also means that I will be away from the office for a little while. See you soon!
September 2021
New project grant:
– I am very grateful to VINNOVA for funding Strategic innovation program for process industrial IT and automation – PiiA for funding our project AIMING to identify how state of the art research results can be further developed to enable a more ecologically and economically sustainable production of fish and seafood in land-based facilities (600,000 SEKl). This project is a collaboration between our industrial partners (Smögenlax, Gårdfisk), the University of Gothenburg, Innovatum and the Swedish Environmental Research Institute (IVL), coordinated by my colleague and main applicant Torbjörn Johansson (IVL).
New PhD project:
– I am very happy to introduce Mishaal Akbar, our new PhD student at the Department of Biological and Environmental Sciences who will be investigating the mechanisms of motivational states in zebrafish in her 4-years PhD project, under the supervision of Dr Lynne Sneddon (main supervisor), alongside Marco Vindas (NMBU, Norway) and myself as co-supervisors. A very warm welcome to Mishaal, and looking forward working with you for the next coming years!
MIRAI2.0 TEG Sustainability Workshop (28-30 September):
I am very proud and honored to present our international collaboration and the MARTINIS project at the Special Session “Lessons learned about international research collaboration between Swedish and Japanese universities from MIRAI (2017-2019) ” of the MIRAI 2.0 Sustainability workshop. I hope that we can help forming new collaborations between Sweden and Japan by sharing our experiences.
July 2021
I am very happy to announce the publication of our first research article from our MARTINIS project: ‘Effects of Recirculating Aquaculture System Wastewater on Anammox Performance and Community Structure’, where we exposed the marine anammox species Candidatus Scalindua to the wastewater of a Swedish farm under different conditions. This is the first stepping stone of our collaborative project and led us to two new research questions currently under investigation, stay tuned!
This article is part of the Special issue from Processes, ‘Anammox-Based Processes for Wastewater Treatment’. I would like to thank all of our collaborators, sponsors, and the editors & reviewers from this special issue.
The online version is available here.
Graphical abstract:
June 2021
I am very proud and honored to represent the University of Gothenburg and SWEMARC for the first major MIRAI 2.0 event hosted at the University of Gotheburg, the Research & Innovation week. I had the opportunity to present the MARTINIS project and our advances on the 9th of June through zoom. I am looking forward for our next gathering, hopefully on site!
March 2021
Publication of the article ‘Continuous physiological welfare evaluation of European whitefish (Coregonus lavaretus) during common aquaculture practices leading up to slaughter’, in Aquaculture 534. In this study, we used a combination of implantable heart rate bio-loggers and a range of traditional stress indicators to evaluate the physiological responses of freely swimming European whitefish in captivity. This study is part of the PhD thesis of my colleague from the FRESHproject, Per Hjelmstedt. The online version is available here.
January 2021
Happy new year!
It is the time of the year to look at the scientific production for 2020:
The work of 2020 resulted in five articles accepted for publications, and the first article of the MARTINIS project under review.
Stay tuned for more articles on our work on with SWEMARC and more news to come with my new position within as a researcher under my new FORMAS grant.
December 2020
Two new articles accepted for publication:
– ‘Invasion and distribution of the redclaw crayfish, Cherax quadricarinatus, in Martinique.’, to be published in the Topical issue on Crayfish form KMAE. In this study, we investigated the state of the spread of this invasive species in the French island. This study is part of the PhD thesis of my former colleague, Thomas Baudry, ‘Impact de Cherax quadricarinatus sur les écosystèmes de Martinique‘.
– ‘Continuous physiological welfare evaluation of European whitefish (Coregonus lavaretus) during common aquaculture practices leading up to slaughter’, to be published in Aquaculture in 2021. This study is part of the PhD thesis of my colleague from the FRESHproject, Per Hjelmstedt. The online version is available here.
New project grant:
– I am very grateful to the Royal Swedish Agricultural Academy and the Stiftelsen Carl-Gustaf och Viveka Åkerhielms minnesfond for their generous contribution to the MARTINIS project (40,000 SEK).
November 2020
New project grants:
I am very grateful to FORMAS for granting me a 4-years ‘early career researcher grant for my collaborative project ‘MARTINIS’. In the comming years, we will continue to investigate alternative bioremediating sources in RAS.
October 2020
New project grants:
– I am very grateful to the Royal Society of Arts and Sciences in Gothenburg (KVVS), through the Adlerbertska foundationand the Stiftelsen Birgit och Birger Wåhlströms Minnesfondfor their contribution to the MARTINIS project (80,000 SEK in total).
– Congratulations to my collaborator, Prof. Tomonori Kindaichi, who recently obtained co-funding through JSPS for our MARTINIS project. Prof. Kindaichi obtained 14,500,000 JPY (1,230,000 SEK) for the period 2021-2024 to cover the mobility and activities from our Japanese partner, in addition to the 400,000 SEK granted by STINT for the Swedish partners earlier in the spring for the period 2021-2023.
July 2020
New article accepted for publication in Applied Soil Ecology: Stress response in terrestrial isopods: a comparative study on glycaemia. This is the result of my previous work conducted at the University of Poitiers, where I investigated the impact of potential stressors on the glycemia. Online version available here.
June 2020
New article accepted for publication in Aquaculture research: Effects of different feeding regimes on juvenile black rockfish (Sebastes schlegilii) survival, growth, digestive enzyme activity, body composition, and feeding costs. This is the result of a collaboration with my friend and colleague Dr. Guo from Zhejiang Ocean University in China, where we aimed at defining the best feeding regime for juvenile blackrockfish intended for restocking. Online version availabe here.
New grants obtained from the Wilhelm och Martina Lundgrens stiftelser foundation (57,000 SEK) and the Helge Axelsson foundation (70,000 SEK) for the MARTINIS project. My colleagues and myself are very grateful for your trust in our project and your generous contribution.
April 2020
New article accepted for publication in Aquaculture (currently in production): Prevalence and severity of cardiac abnormalities and arteriosclerosis in farmed rainbow trout (Oncorhynchus mykiss). This is the result of our collaboration within the FRESH project led by my friend and colleague Dr. Brijs, where we assessed and compared the health and welfare status of rainbow trouts farmed in different facilities in Sweden and Finland. Click here for the full text.
March 2020
Presenting our work on RAS and the MARTINIS project pilot results at the Swedish national aquaculture conference in Åhus (10-11 March; Nationella vattenbrukskonferensen). Congratulations to my friends and colleagues, James Hinchcliffe, who presented our work using mussel by-products to replace fishmeal in wolffish diet, and Niklas Warwas who presented our work about marine yeast and sustainable aquaculture in a perfect Swedish and got interviewed by P4 Kristianstad.
January 2020
Study visit at Hiroshima University (25/01-01/02) together with Federico Micolucci (Lund University), we visited the laboratory of our collaborator from the MIRAI consortium, prof. Tomonori Kindaichi at Hiroshima University in order to continue our experiment of characterization of the impact of wastewater from a fish farm on microbial community structure and in situ activity of Anammox granules. In the program of this visit, working on the experimental reactor, FISH (fluorescence in-situ hybridization) and preparing the next step of our research project MARTINIS.
November-December 2019
– Study visit in Hiroshima (23/11-03/12) together with my colleague Federico Micolucci from Lund University to the laboratory of our collaborator from the MIRAI consortium, prof. Tomonori Kindaichi in at Hiroshima University in order to initiate our first experiment of characterization of the impact of wastewater from a fish farm on microbial community structure and in situ activity of anammox granules. The experiment is expected to be finalized by the end of Spring 2020.
– Representing SWEMARCand the MARTINISproject during the closing seminar of the MIRAI project in Stockholm and Uppsala (11-14/11). I had the opportunity once again to present my work and discuss potential future collaboration with other Swedish and Japanese universities. In addition, I gave a joint presentation with my collaborators from the MARTINIS project where we showed our colleagues the first results and the perspective of our collaborative project .
August-September 2019
– Study visits in Iceland with the students from the Nordic master program MARBIO. Together with the students from our master program, we have been visiting our partners universities in Hólar and Akureyri as well as fish farms, trawlers and marine products processing factories.
– Start of the cultivation of Marine Anammox in Sweden and study visit of prof. Kindaichi. Thanks to our STINT initiation grant and our project grant obtained from the Helge Axelsson foundation (80,000 SEK), we were able to successfully start the culture of Anammox in both Gothenburg and Lund. Since then, we are carefully monitoring the growth of our bacteria colonies in prevision of our future experimental trials. More to come soon!
May-June 2019
– STINT initiation grant and study-visit at Hiroshima University. Our collaborative project got recently granted a 150,000 SEK initiation grant from STINT, the Swedish Foundation for International Cooperation in Research and Education. With this grant, we have planned 2 studies visit to Hiroshima University (June and November), and two studies visit to Gothenburg (August and November). Activities include learning to work and cultivate marine Anammox bacteria and build both culture and marine recirculating systems with Anammox bacteria in Sweden and seminars to present our project.
– During our first visit to Hiroshima, we have learned how to cultivate and work with marine Anammox and given a seminar in front on 20 persons.
March-April 2019
– MIRAI sustainability workshop (28-29 March) and study visit at Hiroshima University (01 April). Once again I proudly represented SWEMARC at this new MIRAI gathering at TokyoTech where I presented the latest advances of our collaborative project MARTINIS (‘Mariculture technical innovations in Sweden’, that was recently awarded 150,000 SEK from STINT, the Swedish Foundation for international cooperation in research and higher education to start our collaborative project. This money will allow researchers from SWEMARC, Lund and Hiroshima to travel, plan experiments and workshops. I also had the privilege to co-chair the group ‘solution for water resources’.
– I then continued my Japanese trip with Dr Federico Micolucci to Hiroshima University, where we had a one day workshop at the laboratory of professor Tomonri Kindaichi where we planned the next steps of our collaboration. Stay tuned for more news!
– New article accepted for publication in Aquaculture (to be published in the May issue): Fish welfare, fast muscle cellularity, fatty acid and body-composition of juvenile spotted wolffish (Anarhichas minor) fed a combination of plant proteins and microalgae (Nannochloropsis oceanica). This is the result of our collaboration with Nord University in Bodo and part of the PhD thesis of Helene Knutsen, that successfully defended her work on the 27th of March.
Proudly representing SWEMARC at the ‘Danskt selskab för marinbiologi’ (annual meeting of the Danish society of marine biology and presenting ‘Aquaculture in closed containment systems- health and welfare of farmed fish’ on the 12th of March.
January 2019
Happy new year!
It is the time of the year to look at the scientific production for 2018:
The work of 2018 resulted in two articles published and several presentations in Sweden, China and Japan.
Stay tuned for our articles on our work on wolffish and more news to come with my new position within SWEMARC, the Swedish mariculture research center, as a researcher for two more years.
October 2018
– NOMACULTURE RAS and wolffish workshop. On the 15th of September, we co-held at the University of Gothenburg and at Chalmers our workshop were we presented our latest results on RAS research and wolffish to stakeholders, together with the RAS simulation program developed by our colleagues at Chalmers: LiBRAS.
https://github.com/FishSim/LibRAS.
Stakeholders testing LiBRAS
– As part of the celebration of the 150th anniversary of Diplomatic relationships between Sweden and Japan, an alumni reception was held at the Swedish embassy on the 9th of October. For this occasion, I was representing the University of Gothenburg as part of a researcher panel invited to present my research in the context of the SDG’s in front of almost 150 alumni, before heading to the Ambassador’s reception, his Excellency Magnus Robach for the MIRAI’s participants.
The alumni reception researcher panel with his Excellency Magnus Robach, ambassador of Sweden in Japan (left); the MIRAI participant’s at the kick-off lecture on October 9th at the University of Tokyo (right).
– On the 11-12th of October, I took part in the water resources sub-topic of the MIRAI sustainability scientific session held at Sophia University. I represented SWEMARC and presented SWEMARC vision and objectives through an oral presentation and a poster. I also presented together with Dr. Federico Micolucci (Lund University) and Professor Tomonori Kindaich (Hiroshima University) our collaborative research plan: the MARTINI project (Mariculture technical innovations in Sweden). In this project, we aim to introduce a combination of membranes coupled with marine Anammox reactor in the marine recirculating aquaculture system at the University of Gothenburg in order to improve organic waste removal in our system.
Presentation of SWEMARC and the MARTINIS research project (center) with my collaborators Prof. Kindaichi (Hiroshima University, right) and Dr Micolucci (Lund University, left)
– Prior to the MIRAI sessions, Dr Micolucci and myself visite the laboratory of professor Kindaichi in Hiroshima and discussed logistic and strategic funding plan for our project.
Marine Anammox reactors at the University of Hiroshima
– First edition of my first biology textbook published: Biologie, collection Fluoresciences Dunod editor (France): first year biology textbook, in French. 540 pages, congratulations to my co-authors and thanks to Dunod edition for their trust and patience. More informations here: https://www.dunod.com/livres-jonathan-roques.
September 2018
– Elsevier 3rd Aquaculture conference, Qingdao, China (25-28/09). Presenting our data from our experiment on the impact of acute and chronic warming waters on physiology, metabolism and growth performance of the Atlantic wolffish. This year, the conference opted for a very innovative format: lightening talks of 5 minutes and poster presentations. This really encouraged people to visit posters and greatly stimulated discussions. We have presented and marketed our wolffish SWEMARC and had a lot of fruitful discussions and possibly following future collaborations in the future.
– Study visits of Chinese farms. Following the Aquaculture conference, with my fellow SWEMARC colleagues we have on a tour in the Sanggou bay and Dalian to visit aquaculture equipment manufacturer, open cages and closed system aquaculture farms, including IMTA companies. We ended up on local fish markets where we could see local farmed species.
August 2018
– New article published in Zoolical studies: ‘ Salinity Variation in a Mangrove Ecosystem: A Physiological Investigation to Assess Potential Consequences of Salinity Disturbances on Mangrove Crabs’. From my work did at the CUFR de Mayotte on mangrove crabs. Click herefor the full text.
– Attending the WAS/EAS conference AQUA 2018, #We R Aquaculture in my hometown of Montpellier. Learning more about current status of aquaculture and prospecting for novel material to add to our recirculation systems. I also won a free registration for next year’s EAS conference in Berlin.
June 2018
– Abstract accepted for the Elsevier AQUA 2018 in Qingdao (China): I will be presenting our work on the impact of elevated temperature on stress and welfare of Atlantic wolffish.
– Attending the first international seaweed conferencein Tjärno (Sweden). Learning more about current status of seaweeds farming, seaweed biology and possibilities to incorporate them in our future IMTA.
Interesting lectures about seaweed cultivation, IMTA, visiting the pilot farm and trying out seaweed burgers at the conference
– New manuscript accepted! The work realized at the University in Mayotte on mangrove crabs ecotoxicology during my time there as a researcher and completed by Dimitri Theuerkauff during his PhD thesis was accepted for publication in Zoological Studies. Stay tuned for the PDF version of the manuscript.
– Co-representing SWEMARC at the MIRAI workshop on sustainability ‘from source to sink’ (7-8 June). The objective of the MIRAI network is to connecting Swedish and Japanese universities through research, education and innovation. Promising contact have been made with potential future collaborators in Japan and Sweden, especially concerning the use ofmembranes and novel marine bacteria in RAS. I will be attending the follow-up seminar and workshop hosted by Sophia University in Tokyo this October.
This workshop was followed by a very nice diner onboard of the Ostindiefararen Götheborg where we met with our vice-chancelor during diner celebrating the 150 years of diplomatic relations between Sweden and Japan.
May 2018
– End of our experiment on the impact of temperature on temperature tolerance of Atlantic wolffish (Anarhichas lupus). Results under analysis, stay tuned!
– End of the Bachelor project of my student Felicia on the impact of acute exposure to warm water on the stress response of Atlantic wolffish. Congratulations for your hardwork and for a very nice presentation!
– Reviewing articles for Aquaculture and Aquaculture Research, and finalizing my chapters for the textbook written for the FLUORESCIENCEseries of the DUNOD editors, due this August.
April 2018
– Participating at the ‘Forskarfika’, co-organized by the University of Gothenburg during the Science festival (saturday 21); meeting and presenting my project over a ‘fika’ to the general public curious to known about wolffish research. https://www.facebook.com/events/208164403274084/
Presenting the research on wolffish around a fika
– AquaAgri annual meeting. Last year meeting with the protagonists of the five projects of AquaAgri and the funding agencies. This year it was organized by the NOMACULTURE research group, where we hosted the meeting at Gothenburg University and Kristinaberg research stations (April 17 and 18). Presentation of the last results and discussions on future collaborations and projects with the different partners and tour of the wolffish and lobster facilities.
March 2018
Launch of the experiment on temperature tolerance of Atlantic wolffish, where we will be following the impact on metabolism (respiration), growth, physiology and welfare of juvenile wolffish exposed to two temperatures.
February 2018
SWEMARC 2nd General assembly in Kristinaberg
Meeting our collaborators and presenting my work on the research areas 3 (Mariculture systems) and 4 (Aquafeed development) and discussing further collaborations.
January 2018
Happy new year!
It is the time of the year to look at the scientific production:
The work of 2017 resulted in one article published and one poster presentation.
Source: google scholar and webofknowledge
Continuing the experiment on nutritional requirement of Atlantic wolffish with my colleagues, grading the fish and designing new follow-up experiment.
December 2017
Launch of the experiment on nutritional requirement of Atlantic wolffish (Anarhichas lupus) at Gothenburg university.
Raceway system at GU
November 2017
Visit of the campus of the University of Jyväskylä (Finland), co-representing Sweden for the RAS and education meeting (28-29 November) in order to discuss the current situation of aquaculture education in Nordic countries and future actions/collaborations. Visit of several fish farms in the vicinity.
Conference in Strasbourg: CEPA3; colloque d’Ecophysiologie Animale: presenting a poster from my work in Poitiers on the stress response in terrestrial isopods. (6-8 November).
Lecturing in Poitiers. Back at the University of Poitiers for a seminar in front on the students from the International Master in Applied Ecology (IMAE) 2017-19.
October 2017
New article published in Aquatic Invasions: ‘Status of Pacifastacus leniusculus and its role in recent crayfish plague outbreaks in France: improving distribution and crayfish plague infection patterns. Work did together with my former colleagues at the University of Poitiers Prof.Frédéric Grandjean. Click herefor the full text.
Summer 2017
Maintenance of the sea-water system and follow-up of the growth and well-being of the wolffish with our wolffish and preparation of experiments during the fall.
July 2017
Helping out as member of the local helpers team for the SEB annual meeting in Gothenburg.
June 2017
– Reception of 1200 juvenile wolffish from Iceland and setting-up the tanks to welcome them in Gotheburg and Kristinaberg.
– Sampling of salmonid kelts for the project ‘Atlantic salmon kelt physiology: endocrine regulation of growth, metabolism and appetite’ (more information here) in Umeå.
Spring 2017
Collaborations with NORD University in Norway, working on improving the diet or wolffish with micro-algae supplementation.
January 2017
Happy new year!
Planning the experimental procedure and starting to prepare the RAS to welcome the wolffish and start the experiments hopefully in the spring.
It is the time of the year to look at the scientific production:
Source: webofknowledge
The work of 2016 resulted in two articles submitted in January 2017 to make a good start for this year.
December 2016
Visit in Norway of the NORD University and the spotted wolfish farm Aminor. A very nice and fruitful meeting with Norwegian, Icelandic and Canadian partners and the start of the WOLFNETnetwork and future collaborations.
November 2016
Starting my new postdoctoral position at department of biological and environmental life sciences at the University of Gothenburg, in Sweden. I will be working here for two years within the project NOMACULTURE, aiming to find the optimal culture conditions for the promising wolffish species for the Swedish aquaculture industry, Anarhichas minor and Anarhichas lupus.
More information’s about this project here
August 2016
Last month at Poitiers University. Last set of experiments on terrestrial isopods stress physiology with chronic exposure to the herbicide Roundup
May 2016
– Welcoming the students for their internship an beginning of the experiments on stress in terrestrial isopods
– Reviewer for the journal International Journal of Aquaculture
April 2016
End of the classes period. Good luck to all my students for the exams!
December 2015
– Reviewer for NOAA/NMFS Saltonstall-Kennedy Research Grant Program, NOAA, Department of Commerce, USA
– Reviewer for the scientific journal Aquaculture research
November 2015
New article published in Aquaculture Research: ‘Ambient salinity and osmoregulation, energy metabolism and growth in juvenile yellowtail kingfish (Seriola lalandi Valenciennes 1833) in a recirculating aquaculture system‘. Work did together with Ainhoa Blanco Garcia and my former colleagues at IMARES.Click herefor the full text
September 2015
Start of the academic year at the University of Poitiers, research team Ecology, Evolution, Symbiosis. Preparing and giving lectures in biodiversity, statistics and evolutionary strategies. Setting up of my new research project: the stress response in A. vulgare
August 2015
Presenting at the Aquaculture conference (AQUA 2015)
- The impact of elevated water nitrogenous wastes concentration on physiology, growth and feed intake of African catfish (Clarias gariepinus) and pikeperch (Sander Lucioperca) (Lecture AQUA2015)
- Aspects of fish welfare in aquaculture practices (Poster_AQUA2015)
June 2015
– Visit of the University of Poitiers where I will be working from september as lecturer and perform research on the stress response in terrestrial isopods
– Invited speaker for a seminar at the University of Liverpool by Dr. Lynne Sneddon
– Two abstracts accepted for the Aquaculture conference in Montpellier (August 23-26/2015): one oral presentation and one poster
– New article published in Aquaculture Research: The impact of elevated water nitrite concentration on physiology, growth and feed intake of African catfish, Clarias gariepinus. Click here for the full text
May 2015
New article published in Aquaculture Research: ‘Recovery from transportation by road of farmed European eel (Anguilla anguilla)’. A collaboration with my former colleagues at RU NIjmegen, Dr. Jeroen Boerrigter and Dr. Remy Manuel. Click herefor the full text
April 2015
– Two abstracts submitted for the Aquaculture Conference 2015, held in my hometown of Montpellier this summer (23-26 august)
February 2015
Reviewer for NOAA/NMFS Saltonstall-Kennedy Research Grant Program (National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration). NOAA, Department of Commerce, USA
Jonathan Roques 
I had the pleasure of visiting the OIST – Okinawa Institute of Science and Technology in Japan, to start a collaboration with Prof. Timothy Ravasi and his lovely team at the marine climate change unit. Together with my colleague, PhD student Marica Andersson, we gave practical classes on how to sample fish blood along with some analyses we use to assess fish stress and welfare. Malabar grouper and the Ocellaris clownfish were both new fish species for us, but together with the OIST team we managed to sample blood and conduct some pilot test on both species. We are looking forward to continue our collaboration in future projects. We would like to thank the MIRAI 2.0 seed-funding for this possibility.