World Aquaculture - December 2014

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8 DECEMBER 2014 • WORLD AQUACULTURE •
B ook R ev i ew
Water quality in warmwater fish ponds, first published in
1979, was my initial introduction to the science of water chemistry
as applied to aquaculture ponds, given to me as a young and
idealistic Peace Corps volunteer and aspiring aquaculturist. My copy
of that book bristles with post-it notes that mark sections I found
particularly useful and annotated in the margins. The blue cover
is scuffed from use but in otherwise good condition. The second
version of this book, Water Quality in Ponds for Aquaculture,
was published in 1990, and it too is marked with multi-color tabs,
although the rather poor binding meant that large chunks of pages
became detached and are now loosely stuffed into place. Now, the
third version of this book, Handbook for Aquaculture Water Quality
has been published, co-authored with Craig Tucker. The books
are of identical size (15 × 23 cm) and stack one on top of the other
neatly.
The progression of these books tells the story of the evolution
of water quality in aquaculture as an area of scientific inquiry. It
also tracks the evolution of the career of Claude Boyd as the pre-
eminent scientist working in this area of aquaculture science. The
first version of the book had three main parts: principles of water
quality, water quality management and measurement of water
quality. The second version of the book did away with the laboratory
measurement and methods section, which was published separately,
and included the original principles and management sections,
expanded to include much more information about water quality in
marine shrimp ponds. The new book, as the title suggests, discusses
water quality independent of the pond aquaculture production
system, although water quality in ponds remains the major theme.
The new book has been completely reorganized and revised,
with the big change being a general coupling of principle with
management. For example, the discussion about dissolved oxygen
dynamics is paired with a chapter about aeration. The reorganization
has also resulted in much more succinct and salient discussions of
topics than in previous versions; the page count has decreased from
482 to 439 from the 1990 version to the current book, despite the
expanded scope. Nearly all chapters include excellent summaries
of the physiological effects of particular water quality variables on
cultured animals, indicating one of the many contributions of the
second author to the book. A section on measurement of a particular
water quality variable concludes most chapters.
Overall, the illustrations, graphs and figures are better
quality than in previous versions, although there are some digital
photographs that were distorted when placed. The list of references
at the end of each chapter are not exhaustive, emphasizing
publications of the first author, but representing key references for
deeper investigation into a topic. The authors selected the less-useful
and awkward convention of numbering citations in the text, rather
than providing author names.
The book begins with chapters on the fundamentals of water
science, with a good discussion of hydrology that is based on the
terms in water budgets for aquaculture production systems. Then,
a new chapter to this book on ecological principles is provided,
including an excellent discussion of the role of life support, culture
system intensity and the footprint of aquaculture. A chapter on
water sources and culture systems follows, emphasizing ponds
but including flow-through systems, cages, recirculating systems,
shellfish and seaweeds – all indicating the expanded scope of the
book.
The ordering of the water chemistry chapters has shifted, giving
prominence to those water quality variables in order of priority. In
general, the ordering of chapters flows much more logically than
in the previous two versions. After the introductory chapters, two
chapters discuss dissolved ions and salinity and then alkalinity
and hardness. Given the importance of alkalinity in buffering pH
changes, chapters on carbon dioxide, pH and liming follow. There is
interesting organization of this topic by describing the processes that
affect pH in aquaculture production systems. The section on liming
in previous versions of the book has become a subsection of a more
comprehensive “managing pH” section. Here too a new passage on
managing high pH in aquaculture ponds is provided.
Chapters on fertilization and feeds and water quality follow.
The chapter on fertilization has been significantly modified from
previous versions of the book, with a much more cogent and concise
summary of the topic provided, although incorporating more of the
work of the Pond Dynamics and Aquaculture CRSP on this topic
would have been welcome.
The next group of chapters starts with a new chapter on thermal
stratification and mixing, a topic that was only a subsection of a
chapter in previous versions of the book. Again, a phenomenon
(stratification) is linked with a management approach (mixing).
Chapters on dissolved oxygen and aeration follows. These chapters
are considerably revised and updated from previous versions of the
book and are much more succinct, organized from the perspective
of the terms in pond dissolved oxygen budgets. There is new
information about aeration rate and aerator placement. A new
chapter on gas supersaturation, important in hatcheries and flow-
through systems in particular, has been added to this version of the
book.
A chapter on solids, turbidity and color follows, including a
discussion of sedimentation basins and effluent treatment. Next is a
chapter on nitrogen, with a particularly good discussion of the forms
of nitrogen in ponds and the toxicity of ammonia and nitrite. A new
chapter on hydrogen sulfide has been added, a topic that was covered
in only a couple of pages in previous versions of the book.
A new chapter on toxic algae and off-flavor provides a
particularly deep treatment of the topic, indicating the contribution
Handbook for Aquaculture Water Quality
by Claude E. Boyd and Craig S. Tucker