Aquaculture Africa 2023

November 13 - 16, 2023

Lusaka, Zambia

A BASELINE STUDY ON THE ASSESSMENT OF THE BIODIVERSITY OF BENTHIC MACROINVERTEBRATES AT KELP BLUE CULTIVATION SITE, SHEARWATER BAY, LUDERITZ

Beata Tooleni N *  Clinton Hay* Lineekela Kandjengo * Daniel Crosette.

University of Namibia

Nautilus, ERF 30, Luderitz

beata.tooleni@kelp.blue



Shearwater Bay mariculture  in Lüderitz cultivates seaweed  Macrocystis pyrifera of three populations namely,  California,  Cape Town and Falklands Island.  This baseline study aims to assess the initial state of benthic macroinvertebrate communities within  kelp  mariculture project (Shearwater Bay site) in contrast to a non-cultivated site (Grossebucht) and adjacent sandy shores. A systematic field sampling  of  transects will be done ,  using  a  Van Veen grab for  offshore  sediment collection  and quadrat sampling using core for intertidal sandy shores sediment collection.  This is done  to examine the composition, abundance and biomass macroinvertebrates .  Physiological parameters ( temperature, dissolved oxygen, pH and water depth) will be measured . To ground truth manual identification, DNA based analysis will be carried out for species identification at all sites.  Sediment grain analysis will be carried out as recommend by studies that kelp cultivation could possibly influence sediment and organic matter at cultivation sites. The data collected will be tested for normality using the Shapiro Wilk Test at alpha level 0.05.  The Shannon  Wiener Diversity Index  and the Evenness Index will be used  to examine the distribution of taxa and species abundance (individuals ).  Multiple regression analysis  will be used  for normally distributed and DIVERSE and PRIMER V6 will be used to evaluate ecological parameters. If the distribution of the data set is not normal the Kruskal Wallis (non-parametric) test will be used . The results of this research may aid future studies that aim to compare  and  understand  the impacts  of kelp cultivation on the explored population as a way to mitigate possible impacts.