Collaborating Institution
Oregon State University
John Bolte
Doug Ernst

Objectives
Objectives of work for the CRSP Database to be completed under the Ninth Work Plan are listed below. This work will be accomplished using a number of Internet and software tools and programs (Ernst et al., 1997). Tasks to be completed will address needs of both data suppliers and users.
1) Continue to add new datasets to the Database as they are submitted. This will be accomplished with rigorous quality control measures so that problems with the Database as it was inherited by its current management (May 1996) will not be repeated.

2) Continue to improve the integrity of data in the Database from past data submissions. This sizable task was not anticipated in the Eighth Work Plan and continues into the Ninth Work Plan.

3) Provide incentives for aquaculture research groups to submit data to the Database, both within and external to the CRSP. Two major components of this task are to make it as simple and efficient as possible to submit data to the Database while also making it professionally rewarding to do so. In support of the latter, automated author citations for extracted datasets will be made available to data users, and use of the Database will continue to be promoted to the aquaculture community through the Internet and professional meetings.

4) Complete the development of experiment treatment protocols (research materials and methods) for all existing data in the Database and require this information for future data submission. This information is critical to data users for both identifying specific datasets and for understanding the context under which datasets were generated. Experimental methods used by researchers are equivalent to the alternative methods used by fish culturists and represent the basis of user-defined data queries. In cooperation with the CRSP Technical Progress Subcommittee, a past and current projects section will be added to the Database web site. This section will support the entry of entirely new studies, as well as materials and methods for existing studies.

5) Continue development of standardized methods and data templates for economic and socio-economic type data in conjunction with CRSP expertise in this area.

6) Enhance the Database web site with supporting information. This includes 1) Data submission manual, 2) Data user’s manual, 3) PD/A CRSP Handbook of Analytical Methods, 4) Work Plan summary table, 5) Study publications and authors, and 6) context-sensitive links to site and facility, publication, and author information maintained at the CRSP Program Management Office. This work is being accomplished in collaboration with the CRSP webmaster.

7) Explore alternative interface programming mechanisms for the Database web site, specifically client-based (Java, Sun Microsystems) versus server-based (Cold Fusion, Allaire) procedures. The objective of this work is to provide Database web site users with the best possible interface to the Database under available computer technology.

8) Develop automated mechanisms to generate experimental-treatment summary statistics for data users. This will consist of summarizing treatment replicates by the use of range, mean, and variance statistics. In addition to reporting purposes, these statistics will also be used to compare treatments based on analysis of variance. For many data users, these synthesized data will be much more valuable than the raw, treatment-replicate data that are now provided.

9) Develop automated regression procedures to determine equation coefficients for fish growth functions (linear, exponential, and sigmoidal) using independent variables of water temperature, food resource availability (endogenous productivity and supplemental feeding rate), and fish weight. These regression parameters and associated fish growth models will provide design and planning tools for pond-based aquaculture.

10) Develop an automated mechanism to summarize all experimental data in the Database to a single table, organized by experimental treatment. This table will be made available to aquaculture database collaborators on an annual basis (e.g., International Center for Living Aquatic Resource Management, ICLARM).

Significance
Two fundamental rationales for the original establishment of the CRSP Database were to:

1) Create a mechanism for analysis of variance among geographically dispersed aquaculture research sites, in addition to analyses within single ponds and among ponds at a single location, and
2) Support development of predictive models for aquaculture pond processes (Egna et al., 1987).
The purpose of the work proposed here is to both continue and expand this effort.

Availability of standardized aquaculture information as computerized database files is an invaluable resource for aquaculture planning, design, and management (e.g., Batterson et al., 1991; Froese and Pauly, 1996; Pedini and Coppola, 1996; Network of Aquaculture Centres in Asia-Pacific, Bangkok, Thailand). Information related to aquaculture is similarly useful (e.g., Consortium of International Earth Science Information Networks; USAID Tropsoils CRSP; and the Small Water Body Database, SADC/ALCOM, Harare, Zimbabwe). Such databases serve as a centralized repository for multiple studies and help alleviate literature search and retrieval tasks. In addition, datasets are immediately available for computerized statistical analyses and parameterization of aquaculture process models.

The Database provides a unique and valuable research-outreach mechanism for the PD/A CRSP (Ernst et al., 1997). The Database provides a model for standardized design and reporting of pond-based aquaculture research, and it provides a publication mechanism that leverages the usefulness of aquaculture research to the greater aquaculture community. Publication of complete, standardized, experimental datasets supports the users of this information in ways that traditional written publications cannot, ranging from unobstructed perspectives on empirical fish production to multivariate statistical analyses (Prein et al., 1993).

Anticipated Benefits
In order for information generated by aquaculture research to support advancements in production practices, it must be published in easily accessible and useful forms. The CRSP Database directly addresses this need by serving as an information conduit from aquaculture research to aquaculture practice. The primary benefit of the proposed work is an enhanced capacity of the aquaculture community to utilize the information generated by aquaculture research. The anticipated impact following from this, given that research studies contained in the Database address real user needs, is that this work will further the development of efficient and sustainable aquaculture practices. Finally, the Database provides a worldwide and world-class model for standardized design and reporting of pond-based aquaculture research. These standardized research and reporting methods provide the essential foundation for efficient and accurate interpretation and application of aquaculture research.

Activity Plan and Additional Items
The CRSP Database currently resides on a Windows-NT server and is maintained using relational database software (Access, Microsoft). A server application (Cold Fusion, Allaire) is used to support client-server database access and database publication via the Internet (World Wide Web). A number of web forms have been developed to support tabular data retrieval. A programming language (Java, Sun Microsystems) is used to embed time-series and water-depth-based plots in web pages for graphical data retrieval.

The Database can be accessed free of cost by aquaculture researchers, educators, outreach and extension agents, and producers. Data may be searched and extracted according to geographical site, calendar year, fish species, and fish production methods, the latter to be completed under the Ninth Work Plan. An interface to the Database is provided at its Internet web site, located at <http://biosys.bre.orst.edu/crspDB/default.htm>. This publication mechanism provides immediate and comprehensive access to the Database worldwide.

The location of the work will be the Department of Bioresource Engineering, Oregon State University, Corvallis, OR USA. The methods by which this work will be carried out are either stated under the objectives above or are too detailed for the scope of this document.

Regional Integration
The Database maintains datasets from all sites and will continue to work with all regions to improve and enhance the quality of the Database. Efforts will be distributed evenly across the four designated CRSP regions.

Task Schedule

Activity

1998

1999

2000

Q3

Q4

Q1

Q2

Q3

Q4

Q1

Q2

General maintenance/ collaboration activities

XX

XX

XX

XX

XX

XX

XX

XX

Develop protocol information

XX

XX

Develop economic templates

XX

XX

XX

XX

Web site development

XX

XX

XX

XX

XX

XX

XX

XX

Automated regression and summary procedures

XX

XX

XX

XX

References
Batterson, T., H. Berkman, K. Hopkins, R. Piedrahita, and T. Popma, 1991. Final Report on Database Management. Pond Dynamics/Aquaculture CRSP, Oregon State University, Corvallis, Oregon,
51 pp.

Egna, H.S., N. Brown, and M. Leslie (Editors), 1987. Pond Dynamics/Aquaculture Collaborative Research Data Reports, Vol. 1: General Reference. Pond Dynamics/Aquaculture Collaborative Research Support Program, Oregon State University, Corvallis, Oregon, 84 pp.

Ernst, D.H., J.P. Bolte, D. Lowes, and S.S. Nath, 1997. PD/A CRSP Central Database: A standardized information resource for pond aquaculture. In: K. Fitzsimmons (Editor), Tilapia Aquaculture: Proceedings from the Fourth International Symposium on Tilapia in Aquaculture. NRAES, Ithaca, New York, pp. 683-700.

Froese, R. and D. Pauly, (Editors), 1996. FishBase 96: Concepts, Design, and Data Sources. ICLARM, Manila, Philippines, 179 pp.

Pedini, M. and R. Coppola, 1996. The General Fisheries Council for the Mediterranean (GFCM) Aquaculture Information System. FAO Aquaculture Newsletter, 13:13-18.

Prein, M., G. Hulata, and D. Pauly, (Editors), 1993. Multivariate Methods in Aquaculture Research: Case Studies of Tilapias in Experimental and Commercial Systems. Std. Rev. 20, ICLARM, Manila, Philippines, 221 pp.