The Siberian Sturgeon Acipenser Baerii, Brandt, 1869

This two-volume book set focuses on the Siberian sturgeon. Acipenser baerii Brandt 1869, one of the 27 “existing” sturgeon species, is a native species of the Siberian catchments, where – as in many other parts of the world – the sturgeon populations are now threatened. Sturgeon farming practices targeting caviar and meat production have been expanding worldwide since the 1990s, and have seen a further increase since the turn of the century. Among the handful of sturgeon species used for significant production, the most dominant is the Siberian sturgeon. Given its peculiar phylogenetic position as a chondrostei and its use as a biological model in e.g. France, the species has also attracted the attention of biologists. 

The aim of the editors was to provide for the first time a comprehensive and updated synthesis regarding the farming-related biology of the Siberian sturgeon. In light of the abundance of material, it has been divided into two volumes, with a focus on biology and farming, respectively. The main parts of Volume 1 are Biology and ecology, Biology and physiology of reproduction, and Ecophysiology, i.e. adaptation to the environment. In turn, Volume 2 is divided into six parts: Reproduction and early ontogenesis, Growing, Global production, Long-term management of brood stock, State of health through welfare and immunology, and Ecological risks of installation in non-native waters, illustrated by two long-term documented examples in Russia and France.

Patrick Williot
Patrick took on the challenge of preventing the disappearance of the critically endangered European sturgeon and developing sturgeon farming. To do so, he mobilized all the means of research, including the use of biological models of the Siberian sturgeon. He was the kingpin of the First International Symposium on Sturgeon held in Bordeaux in 1989. In 2007, he succeeded in achieving the controlled reproduction of farmed European sturgeon for the first time. He has strongly supported Siberian sturgeon farming in France. Patrick has edited several peer-reviewed books and proceedings on aquaculture and conservation biology, mainly on sturgeon, and published over 90 papers in peer-reviewed journals or books.

Guy Nonotte
Researcher at the CNRS, with a PhD from the University of Strasbourg, Guy NONNOTTE has pursued research on fish physiology i.e. ionic regulation, respiration, extracellular acid-base balance and cell volume regulation in freshwater and sea-water fishes exposed to environmental changes and pollutants with a specific interest in the model ? Siberian sturgeon ?. He supervised a thesis on the toxicity of ammonia for the Siberian sturgeon in collaboration with Dr. Patrick Williot. In 1994, he was appointed Professor of Animal Physiology at the University of Brest (France) and Emeritus Professor of this University in 2007. He has published more than 100 articles in international reviews and supervised numerous theses on fish ecophysiology.

Mikhail Chebanov 
Dr.Sc., Professor at the Aquatic Bioresources and Aquaculture Department of Kuban State University and Director of State Centre for Sturgeon Gene Pool Conservation, Russia. He received an award from the Government of Russia in Science for developing technology for the year-round reproduction of sturgeon and for the global implementation of ultrasound for breeding stock management. He served as consultant FAO, convener of the Management of Sturgeons Working Party EIFAC - FAO, deputy chair and member of the IUCN Sturgeon Specialists Group. Chebanov is co-founder and member of the World Sturgeon Conservation Society board of directors. He has chaired numerous International workshops and symposia sessions.

Denise Vizziano Cantonnet
Denise Vizziano Cantonnet is a professor at the Universidad de la Republica Oriental del Uruguay and member of the National System of Researchers of Uruguay. She has a PhD from the Universite de Rennes I (France) and worked as an invited professor at Rennes I and in several Universities in Latin America (Argentina, Brazil, Chile, Colombia, Peru). For more than 20 years she has been involved in the Latin- American postgraduate course on Reproductive Endocrinology of Fish to develop this area in the American continent. In the context of sturgeons, she is investigating the molecular basis of sex differentiation. Together with French colleagues, she created the first gonadal transcriptome for Siberian sturgeon and the first global tissue transcriptome.