Non Technical Summary
The progressive culture of environmental sustainability demands manufacturers to minimize their negative social and environmental impact but provides an inadequate framework for innovative solutions to waste issues. There are 350 permitted aquaculture (or seafood) industries in Louisiana that have an economic impact of $2.4 billion annually. Most aquaculture processors are in remote areas with direct water access to best serve their fishing suppliers, thus leaving waste and wastewater infrastructure lacking. These rural areas are surrounded by agricultural land that provides an economic impact of $11.7 billion annually for the state. This proposed project will generate preliminary data to characterize dissolved organic matter (DOM) in order to provide traceable avenues for a waste valorization network for Louisiana communities by promoting renewable alternatives for fertilizer. This research will enhance Louisiana's sustainability and resiliency footprint by providing regional networking for aquaculture processors' waste streams as agricultural fertilizers assessing the impacts of organic matter on our state's environmental ecosystems and reducing costs for local agricultural and aquaculture communities.By maximizing resources, LSU and SU AgCenters can provide immediate service for traditionally underrepresented coastal and agricultural partners through the dissemination of impactful research that will benefit local, regional, and national waste valorization. The LSU faculty participating in this project hold research and extension appointments in their respective areas with dedicated stakeholder networks to disseminate findings from beneficial research. Research will be generated from working and engaging with local communities through learning programs, workshops, site visits, and sampling trips to produce innovative data. The dissemination outcomes will be reported based on attendance and amplification of findings through workshops and association meetings. The farmers and rural business owners who attend field days and workshops immerse themselves in science disseminated by our dedicated faculty to better understand their industry and surrounding environment. This instrument can provide user-friendly visual data to characterize and link Louisiana's agricultural identity in a way that no other rural community will have the capability of exploring.?The overall goal of this research and extension project is to generate feasible evidence of a waste valorization network for seafood processors and agricultural farms to utilize natural waste materials as renewable fertilizers. This project has the potential to decrease operational costs for seafood processors and agricultural farmers through waste service reduction and dependence on synthetic fertilizer. The decrease in synthetic use will be estimated as the increase in renewable fertilizer from seafood waste is generated from these partnerships. The waste valorization loop has the potential to lead to a sustainable agricultural footprint in the state and reduce overall effect operation costs and environmental nutrient impact.

Classification

Knowledge Area (KA)	Subject of Investigation (SOI)	Field of Science (FOS)	Percent
102	0210	2000	40%
102	0199	2000	40%
102	0399	2000	20%

Knowledge Area
102 - Soil, Plant, Water, Nutrient Relationships;

Subject Of Investigation
0210 - Water resources; 0199 - Soil and land, general; 0399 - Watersheds and river basins, general;

Field Of Science
2000 - Chemistry;

Goals / Objectives
This proposed project will generate preliminary data by molecular fingerprinting the dissolved organic matter (DOM) in isolated research areas to synchronize current faculty expertise in coastal and agricultural disciplines and promote collaboration on cumulative data sets for overlapping environmental systems. The DOM characterization will provide traceable avenues for a waste valorization network for Louisiana communities by promoting renewable alternatives for fertilizer and modeling for the current and estimated transport of organic matter in the environmental ecosystem. The expected outcomes will be disseminated through LSU extension networks in the form of recommendations, presentations, and workshops tailored toward stakeholders while providing a foundational framework to pursue federal research and extension grant opportunities leveraging instrumentation and preliminary molecular DOM datasets. By synchronizing the team's multidisciplinary expertise, the proposed research will enhance Louisiana's sustainability and resiliency footprint by providing regional networking for aquaculture processors' waste streams as agricultural fertilizers and assessing the impacts of organic matter on our state's environmental ecosystems.The following objectives are the major research focal points:Objective 1: Waste Characterization: Wastewater from multiple aquaculture processors in the team's network (Watts and Teodoro) will be collected for analysis of DOM signatures (Hayes). The outcomes will be a baseline DOM fingerprint for various nutrient-enriched waste streams and regional quantities of aquaculture waste. Dissemination will benefit the knowledge of processors and community clusters for future waste compositing. Objective 2:Waste Fertilizer Field Trials: Soil samples from selected extension sites (Abdi) will be collected for analysis of pore water DOM signatures (Hayes). The?outcome will be a baseline DOM fingerprint for various soils to overlap with regional processors' waste generation (Teodoro).?Dissemination will benefit the knowledge of agricultural growers and community clusters for future waste compositing. Objective 3: Runoff Monitoring: Land-applied fertilizer from alligator processors (Plumlee and Oretega) will be collected for analysis of soil and water DOM signatures (Hayes). The?outcomes will be a series of pre-and post- land applications of wastewater to show the best management practice as a fertilizer.?Dissemination will benefit the knowledge of communities for the potential use of aquaculture waste as fertilizers.?Objective 4: Point Source Tracing: DOM will be characterized (Hayes) for samples will be collected from tributaries near a shrimp processor (Watts) that has been classified as the source of impairment for fish and wildlife (Plumlee) by LaDEQ (subsegment ID: LA060902_00).14 The outcomes will be a DOM fingerprint for the current ecosystem impairment from wastewater effluent and the potential reduction benefit of the targeted application of wastewater. Dissemination will benefit the environmental stewardship of aquaculture processors.The PD (Hayes) will dedicate 0.5 months per year. with a dedicated graduate student to the project. The co-PDs will spend approximately 0.25 months per year on the project.

Project Methods
The efforts to reach these audiences will be evaluated in the following way:Experiential learning programs will be a way to discuss with stakeholders the innovative opportunity to see fDOM characteristics of waste and wastewater. This effort will be evaluated by the number of site visits per year and samples taken from sites.Workshops/demonstrations will be a dissemination activity used the showcase the research. This extension activity will be evaluated by a number of workshops, attendees, and in some cases, knowledge gains from the workshop through survey metrics.Class lectures will be a tool to demonstrate the science to students and add an innovative tool to their degree path. This effort will be evaluated by the number of students, the number of dedicated research projects, and student publications.Other forms of extension/outreach will include extension publications, newsletters, and articles produced to get information out about from analysis. This method will be evaluated by a number of publications, and platforms (for example Louisiana Agricultura Magazine publications vs. website newsletters), and estimate stakeholders reached.