Title : Tropical seaweed holobionts: Microbiome-based strategies for disease resilience and sustainable aquaculture
Abstract:
Tropical seaweed aquaculture supports coastal livelihoods, hydrocolloid industries, food systems, and blue economy development, yet farmed seaweeds remain vulnerable to environmental stress, ice-ice disease, epiphyte outbreaks, and variable biomass performance. Increasing evidence suggests that seaweeds should be understood as holobionts: integrated biological systems composed of the macroalgal host, associated microorganisms, the phycosphere, and the surrounding environment. This perspective is particularly relevant for
tropical aquaculture genera such as Kappaphycus, Eucheuma, and Gracilaria, where disease and productivity are shaped by interactions among host physiology, microbial communities, salinity fluctuation, temperature, irradiance, nutrients, sedimentation, and farm management.
This presentation proposes a holobiont-informed framework for improving tropical seaweed aquaculture. Ice-ice disease is discussed not only as a pathogen-associated condition, but as a holobiont-level disorder involving environmental stress, host oxidative imbalance, altered exudation, microbial dysbiosis, opportunistic colonisation, and tissue degradation. The
presentation also highlights research priorities including niche-specific microbiome sampling, phycosphere analysis, host physiological measurements, environmental metadata, microbial
culture collections, holobiont probiotics, synthetic microbial communities, and farm-based validation.
Using Indonesia and the Coral Triangle as a tropical case context, this talk argues that
seaweed-producing regions can move beyond raw biomass production toward science-driven holobiont-based aquaculture innovation. The presentation also introduces the broader scholarly framework of the forthcoming book Seaweed Holobionts: Concepts, Methods, and Biotechnology from a Tropical Perspective, which integrates microbiome ecology, seaweed physiology, disease resilience, biotechnology, and sustainable tropical aquaculture.
