DOI: 10.3897/arphapreprints.e177889

Authors: Serena Rasconi, Ana Gavrilović

Abstract: Abstracts of talks presented at ParAqua Grantees Conference held in Zagreb (Croatia), 1-2 September 2025

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DOI: 10.3897/arphapreprints.e168447

Authors: David Kinyonyi, Johnson Mwebaze

Abstract: This research focused on the development of a cost-effective IoT-enabled smart agriculture system meant to address the specific challenges that smallholder farmers are facing in Butaleja District (Uganda). The challenges included limited resources, dependence on traditional farming methods and vulnerability to climate change. The proposed system integrated low-cost IoT sensors to monitor critical environmental parameters such as soil moisture, temperature and weather conditions combined with cloud-based and offline edge analytics. It further provided real-time actionable insights to farmers via SMS (Short Message Service) and user-friendly platforms enabling improved irrigation management, optimized resource usage and enhanced crop productivity. Usability was prioritized through designing the system with the ability to operate in low-connectivity environments and ensuring ease of usage for farmers with minimal technical expertise. The system’s design and functionality were validated through the execution of multiple simulations proving its ability to accurately monitor environmental parameters, predict when irrigation is to happen using a machine learning model ensuring efficient irrigation management. The simulation also highlighted the effectiveness of integrating SMS notifications and real-time analytics, ensuring accessibility for farmers with minimal technological expertise. By addressing the unique needs of smallholder farmers, the study offers a scalable, sustainable and impactful solution for transforming agriculture in resource-constrained regions with potential applications beyond Uganda. Future work is intended to explore scaling the system to diverse agricultural contexts, assessing its socio-economic impacts and integrating renewable energy solutions to enhance sustainability.

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DOI: 10.3897/arphapreprints.e160486

Authors: Rajapreethi Rajendran, Claus Weiland, Jonas Grieb, Soulaine Theocharides, Sam Leeflang, Wouter Addink, Sharif Islam

Abstract: The Distributed System for Scientific Collections (DiSSCo) is a research infrastructure to integrate European natural science collections (NSCs) digitally. The aim is to facilitate and enhance the access, management and analysis of collection assets in one unified digital collection. The Machine Annotation Services (MAS) are essential components of DiSSCo’s Digital Specimen Architecture (DSArch). These services automate the annotation of digital objects to enable labelling and categorisation of NSC's digital assets.To further advance this, a Machine Learning as a Service (MLaaS) approach was developed which provides researchers with the access to pre-trained machine-learning models for complex tasks, such as instance segmentation and morphological analysis of datasets. MLaaS enhances the DiSSCo’s scalability and flexibility and allows the integration of machine-learning tools in close alignment with the FAIR (Findable, Accessible, Interoperable, Reusable) principles.This study employs DiSSCO's MLaaS framework for the quantitative analysis of herbarium specimens. Machine-learning models, such as Mask R-CNN and YOLO11, are comparatively applied to detect and generate the pixel-level masks of plant organs in herbarium sheets. Subsequently, these models are used to reconstruct the scale in the herbarium sheet and to calculate the surface area of identified plant organs. The determination of quantitative characteristics of plant specimens, such as measuring leaf area or the timestamp of the floral transition, opens up herbarium data for reuse in the large prognosis platforms currently developed in the framework of the Common European Data Spaces. In this way, plant trait data mobilised from natural science collections can improve the predictive capability of the vegetation model components of climate-related data spaces.

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DOI: 10.3897/arphapreprints.e148125

Authors: Serena Rasconi, Laura Garzoli, Ana Gavrilović

Abstract: Abstracts of talks presented at ParAqua Conference held in Dubrovnik (Croatia), 16-17 April 2024

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DOI: 10.3897/arphapreprints.e125091

Authors: Desalegn Chala, Erik Kusch, Claus Weiland, Carrie Andrew, Jonas Grieb, Tuomas Rossi, Tomas Martinovic, Dag Endresen

Abstract: Amidst population growth and climate-driven crop stresses, ensuring food security demands innovative strategies. Crop wild relatives (CWR), wild plants in the same genus as the crop, offer novel genetic resources crucial for enhancing crop resilience. Here, we introduce a prototype digital twin (pDT) to aid in searching and utilising CWR genetic resources. Leveraging the MoDGP (Modeling the Germplasm of Interest) tool, the pDT enables mapping geographic areas where stress-tolerant CWR populations can be found. With its graphical user interface, it offers flexibility in selecting genetic resources from CWR tailored to enhance resilience of various crops against diverse stress factors.

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DOI: 10.3897/arphapreprints.e113306

Authors: Karel Torres-Lozano, Milagros Cabrera-Soregui, Enrique Garcia-Candela, Victor Puicon-Niño de Guzman, Fernando Mesias-Valle

Abstract: Piaractus brachypomus is the most produced Amazonian fish in Peru; however, little is known about histological lesions that monogeneans produce in their gills. When examining 40 juveniles of P. brachypomus from two comercial fish farms, presence of Anacanthorus penilabiatus and Mymarothecium viatorum were found, with a total monogenean prevalence of 100%, with a mean intensity and mean abundance of 225.5 parasites/fish for both indices. At the level of the gill tissue, lesions identified were dilation and congestion of the central vein and hyperplasia of the secondary lamella with eosinophilic and lymphocytic infiltration. This is the first report of histopathological alterations caused by the infection of Anacanthorus penilabiatus and Mymarothecium viatorum in cultured groups of P. brachypomus in the Peruvian Amazon, and indicates the need to improve good practices and biosafety in the production of this fish to prevent or control the impact of these monogeneans.

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DOI: 10.3897/arphapreprints.e112382

Authors: Bryony Willcox, Deepa Senapathi, Mark Brown, Simon Potts

Abstract: In the real world, pollinators face multiple interacting pressures, and so response options must be tailored to this. To date, most attention has been on characterising the risks to managed pollinators from single stressors, though recently more attention has been paid to risks from multiple stressors (e.g., pesticides, pathogens and poor nutrition). The PoshBee project has developed a policy brief providing recommendations on options that mitigate against multiple stressors.

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DOI: 10.3897/arphapreprints.e110523

Authors: María Eugenia Vega Cendejas, Mirella Hernandez de Santillana, Sonia Palacios-Sánchez

Abstract: Length-weight relationships (LWR) were estimated for 44 fish species collected from the unprotected Yucatan coastal Corridor. The sample was composed of species represented by 23 families: Urotrygonidae [Urobatis jamaicensis (Cuvier, 1816)], Albulidae [Albula vulpes (Linnaeus, 1758)]; Elopidae [Elops saurus Linnaeus, 1766], Engraulidae [Anchoa hepsetus (Linnaeus, 1758), Anchoa lamprotaenia Hildebrand, 1943, Anchoa lyolepis (Evermann & Marsh, 1900), Anchoa mitchilli (Valenciennes, 1848)]; Dorosomatidae [Harengula jaguana Poey, 1865, Opisthonema oglinum (Lesueur, 1818)]; Ariidae [Ariopsis felis (Linnaeus, 1766), Bagre marinus (Mitchill, 1815)]; Synodontidae [Synodus foetens (Linnaeus, 1766)]; Batrachoididae [Opsanus beta (Goode & Bean, 1880)]; Mugilidae [Mugil curema Valenciennes, 1836, Mugil trichodon Poey, 1875]; Belonidae [Strongylura notata (Poey, 1860), Strongylura timucu (Walbaum, 1792)]; Hemiramphidae [Chriodorus atherinoides Goode & Bean, 1882, Hyporhamphus unifasciatus (Ranzani, 1841)]; Carangidae [Caranx latus Agassiz, 1831, Oligoplites saurus (Bloch & Schneider, 1801), Selene vomer (Linnaeus, 1758), Trachinotus carolinus (Linnaeus, 1766), Trachinotus falcatus (Linnaeus, 1758), Trachinotus goodei Jordan & Evermann 1896]; Cynoglossidae [Symphurus plagiusa (Linnaeus, 1766)]; Gerreidae [Eucinostomus argenteus Baird & Girard, 1855, Eucinostomus gula (Quoy & Gaimard, 1824), Eucinostomus harengulus Goode & Bean, 1879]; Grammistidae [Rypticus maculatus Holbrook 1855]; Haemulidae [Orthopristis chrysoptera (Linnaeus, 1766)]; Lutjanidae [Lutjanus griseus (Linnaeus, 1758)]; Triglidae [Prionotus tribulus Cuvier, 1829]; Ephippidae [Chaetodipterus faber (Broussonet, 1782)]; Sciaenidae [Bairdiella chrysoura (Lacepède, 1802), Cynoscion arenarius, Ginsburg, 1930; Menticirrhus americanus (Linnaeus, 1758), Menticirrhus littoralis (Holbrook, 1847), Menticirrhus saxatilis (Bloch & Schneider, 1801)], Sparidae [Archosargus rhomboidalis (Linnaeus, 1758), Lagodon rhomboides (Linnaeus, 1766)]; Ostraciidae [Acanthostracion quadricornis (Linnaeus, 1758)]; Tetraodontidae [Sphoeroides spengleri (Bloch, 1785), Sphoeroides testudineus (Linnaeus, 1758)]. A new maximum standard length (SL) was recorded for Anchoa lamprotaenia. A positive allometric growth was reported in fourteen species, negative allometric growth in 26 species, and isometric growth in four species.

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DOI: 10.3897/arphapreprints.e94590

Authors: Serena Rasconi, Hans-Peter Grossart, Alena Gsell, Bastiaan Willem Ibelings, Dedmer van de Waal, Ramsy Agha, Ariola Bacu, Maija Balode, Meryem Beklioğlu, Maja Berden Zrimec, Florina Botez, Tom Butler, Slawomir Cerbin, Angela Cortina, Michael Cunliffe, Thijs Frenken, Esther Garcés, Laura Gjyli, Yonatan Golan, Tiago Guerra, Ayis Iacovides, Antonio Idà, Maiko Kagami, Veljo Kisand, Jovica Leshoski, Pini Marco, Natasa Mazalica, Takeshi Miki, Maria Iasmina Moza, Sigrid Neuhauser, Deniz Özkundakci, Kristel Panksep, Suzana Patcheva, Branka Pestoric, Maya Petrova Stoyneva, Diogo Pinto, Juergen Polle, Carmen Postolache, Joaquín Pozo Dengra, Albert Reñé, Pavel Rychtecky, Dirk S. Schmeller, Bettina Scholz, Géza Selmeczy, Télesphore Sime-Ngando, Kálmán Tapolczai, Orhideja Tasevska, Ivana Trbojevic, Blagoy Uzunov, Silke Van den Wyngaert, Ellen van Donk, Marieke Vanthoor, Elizabeta Veljanoska Sarafiloska, Susie Wood, Petr Znachor

Abstract: Zoosporic parasites (i.e. fungi and fungi-like aquatic microorganisms) constitute important drivers of natural populations, causing severe host mortality. Economic impacts of parasitic diseases are notable in the microalgae biotech industry, affecting production of food ingredients, biofuels, pharma- and nutraceuticals.While scientific research on this topic is gaining traction by increasing studies elucidating the functional role of zoosporic parasites in natural ecosystems, we are currently lacking integrated and interdisciplinary efforts for effectively detecting and controlling parasites in the microalgae industry. To fill this gap we propose to establish an innovative, dynamic European network connecting scientists, industries and stakeholders to optimize information exchange, equalize access to resources and to develop a joint research agenda. ParAqua aims at compiling and making available all information on the occurrence of zoosporic parasites and their relationship with hosts, elucidate drivers and evaluate impacts of parasitism in natural and man-made aquatic environments. We aim to implement new tools for monitoring and prevention of infections, and to create protocols and a Decision Support Tool for detecting and controlling parasites in the microalgae biotech production. Applied knowledge on zoosporic parasites can feed back from industry to ecology, and we therefore will explore whether the developed tools can be applied for monitoring lakes and reservoirs. Short-Term Scientific Missions and Training Schools will be organised specifically for early stage scientists and managers – with a specific focus on ITC – with the aim to share and integrate both scientific and applied expertise and increase exchange between basic and applied researchers and stakeholders.

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