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Global shortage of technical agars: back to basics (resource management)

dc.contributor.authorSantos, Rui
dc.contributor.authorMelo, Ricardo A.
dc.date.accessioned2018-12-07T14:52:38Z
dc.date.available2018-12-07T14:52:38Z
dc.date.issued2018-08
dc.description.abstractBacteriological and technical agars are in short supply with potential consequences for research, public health, and clinical labs around the world. To diagnose bottlenecks and sustainability problems that may be putting the industry at risk, we analyzed the available time series for the global landings of Gelidium, the most important raw materials for the industry. Data on the harvest of Gelidium spp. have been reported since1912, when Japan was the only producer. After World War II the diversification of harvested species and producing countries resulted in a strong increase in global landings. Maximum harvest yields of almost 60,000 t year(-1) in the 1960s were sustained until the 1980s, after which landings decreased continuously to the present. In the 2010s, a reduction in the global production to about 25,000 t year(-1) was observed, which was lower than the yields of the 1950s. Landings by important producers such as Japan, Korea, Spain, and Portugal have collapsed. This is the ultimate cause of the present shortage of bacteriological and technical agars. However, an important factor at play is the concentration of the global landings of Gelidium in Morocco, as its relative contribution increased from 23% in the 1960s to the present 82%. Two specific bottlenecks were identified: restrictive export quotas of unprocessed Gelidium in favor of the national agar industry and resource management regulations that were apparently not enforced resulting in over-harvesting and resource decline. The global industry may well be dependent on resource management basics. Simple harvest statistics must be gathered such as the harvest effort and the variation of harvest yields along the harvest season. We discuss how this information is fundamental to manage the resource. The available harvest statistics are generally poor and limited and vary significantly among different sources of data. Probable confusions between dry and wet weight reporting and poor discrimination of the species harvested need to be resolved.
dc.identifier.doi10.1007/s10811-018-1425-2
dc.identifier.issn0921-8971
dc.identifier.issn1573-5176
dc.identifier.urihttp://hdl.handle.net/10400.1/11143
dc.language.isoeng
dc.peerreviewedyes
dc.publisherSpringer
dc.subjectGelidium
dc.subjectBiomass
dc.subjectExploitation
dc.subjectCultivation
dc.subjectPopulation
dc.subjectRhodophyta
dc.subjectMorocco
dc.titleGlobal shortage of technical agars: back to basics (resource management)
dc.typejournal article
dspace.entity.typePublication
oaire.awardURIinfo:eu-repo/grantAgreement/FCT/5876/UID%2FMAR%2F04292%2F2013/PT
oaire.awardURIinfo:eu-repo/grantAgreement/FCT/5876/UID%2FMulti%2F04326%2F2013/PT
oaire.citation.endPage2473
oaire.citation.issue4
oaire.citation.startPage2463
oaire.citation.titleJournal of Applied Phycology
oaire.citation.volume30
oaire.fundingStream5876
oaire.fundingStream5876
person.familyNameSantos
person.givenNameRui
person.identifier42560
person.identifier.ciencia-id9B18-444D-2244
person.identifier.orcid0000-0002-7861-4366
person.identifier.ridB-4168-2008
person.identifier.scopus-author-id7201375018
project.funder.identifierhttp://doi.org/10.13039/501100001871
project.funder.identifierhttp://doi.org/10.13039/501100001871
project.funder.nameFundação para a Ciência e a Tecnologia
project.funder.nameFundação para a Ciência e a Tecnologia
rcaap.rightsopenAccess
rcaap.typearticle
relation.isAuthorOfPublication84487ca8-404a-4584-81f0-3662c340d712
relation.isAuthorOfPublication.latestForDiscovery84487ca8-404a-4584-81f0-3662c340d712
relation.isProjectOfPublicationb84cb732-8d6b-43ff-974b-01c29a129290
relation.isProjectOfPublication868b4818-3efa-4edb-9202-c464d64fd38f
relation.isProjectOfPublication.latestForDiscoveryb84cb732-8d6b-43ff-974b-01c29a129290

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