Benthic organic enrichment from suspended mussel (Mytilus edulis) culture in Prince Edward Island, Canada

Effects of intensive scallop mariculture on macrobenthic assemblages in Sishili Bay, the northern Yellow Sea of China

“…The results suggest that the effects of scallop cultivation on the macrobenthic community were negligible, and no major shifts were observed in the benthic infauna to species that are tolerant of high organic loading. This conclusion coincides with findings of previous studies focused on determining the effects of various types of shellfish mariculture (primarily mussel culture) on a macrobenthic community with a relatively high current velocity (mean speed of 10 cm s -1 and maximum speed over 30 cm s -1 ) (da Costa & Nalesso, 2006;Cranford et al, 2009;Fabi et al, 2009). The shellfish farm apparently exerted negative effects on its macrobenthic community with a lower current velocity [mean current velocity from 3.16 to 10.21 cm s -1 (Hartstein & Rowden, 2004); typical speed of 5 cm s -1 (Callier et al, 2008)].…”

“…Macrobenthic communities have been used as bioindicators for monitoring coastal pollution and organic accumulation for a long time (Pearson & Rosenberg, 1978;Shin et al, 2004;Gaudêncio & Cabral, 2007) and have been proved to be a useful tool to monitor the sustainability of mariculture practices (da Costa & Nalesso, 2006). However, previous studies have drawn distinctly different conclusions, and the impacts of shellfish culture were within the range from no or minimal negative effects to significantly positive and negative changes (Cranford et al, 2009). In China, despite the rapid growth of scallop cultivation, there are still few studies focusing on the changes of the macrobenthic community influenced by the intensive scallop raft farms.…”

“…The local current/tide appears to be strong enough to maintain the concentration of organic matter at a relatively low level. The magnitude and severity of the effects of shellfish culture vary from no or minimal negative effects to significantly positive and negative changes, depending on the outcome of a complex interplay between many operational and environmental factors, with the local hydrodynamic regime being a major factor (Cranford et al, 2009). …”

“…With the rapid development of mariculture, more and more studies have focused on the ecological and environmental effects of intensive bivalve farming (Borja et al, 2009;Cranford et al, 2009;Fabi et al, 2009). The long-term sustainability of bivalve cultivation depends on the maintenance of the functional health of the natural ecosystem, and thus the evaluation of the effects of bivalve raft cultures on the underlying seabed environment is urgently recommended (Fabi et al, 2009).…”

Assessing the benthic ecological status in the stressed coastal waters of Yantai, Yellow Sea, using AMBI and M-AMBI

“…In the early of 2010, the Yantai government gradually removed most of the raft culture to achieve a better landscape for tourism along the coastal zone of Sishili Bay. Several studies had shown the negative impact on the environment from aquaculture, including the effects of waste products on benthic and planktonic communities (Primavera, 2006;Borja et al, 2009c), the spread of pests (Forrest et al, 2009), the effects of increased biodeposition (Canford et al, 2009) and functional value of coastal ecosystem (Godet et al, 2009). Although we could not get the quantitative assessment of the effect of removing raft culture upon the ES of coastal water in the present work, raft culture removal is certainly to be beneficial for water and benthic quality in this area in the long run.…”