Tuesday, June 22, 2010

Preparing for the worms


A few months ago, a student walked into AREAC and announced his desire to elevate his interest in vermiculture into a full-fledged research project. Self-motivated students are always welcome in AREAC, and Jorge will be conducting growth rate experiments on Tilapia using Red Wiggler worms to supplement their diet. This is an effective means to recycle food waste and turn it back into food production, and the use of worms as a diet supplement in urban aquaponics systems has already been demonstrated. Jorge hopes to calculate the nutrient and carbon recapture from this practice.


The first step in this new line of research in AREAC was to construct the worm bin. Dr. Branco found some spare room in a corner of the lab, which is now occupied by the new worm accomodations.