Life cycle assessment of aquaculture systems: Does burden shifting occur with an increase in production intensity?

Ghamkhar, Ramin; Boxman, Suzanne E.; Main, Kevan L.; Zhang, Q.; Trotz, Maya A.; Hicks, Andrea

doi:10.1016/j.aquaeng.2020.102130

Cited by 30 publications

(26 citation statements)

References 51 publications

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“…This indicated the importance of considering both of the aforementioned parameters for the mitigation of the system's environmental impacts regarding toxicity to the environment (EC) and carcinogenicity to humans (HHC). Despite the traditional assumption of negligible infrastructure impacts (Ayer & Tyedmers, 2009;Ghamkhar, Boxman et al, 2020), the sensitivity analysis of the investigated aquaponic system indicated that the infrastructure could pose a relatively high SF, especially regarding OD, HHC, and HHNC. This emphasized the importance of not neglecting infrastructure and incorporating this parameter within the system boundary in future studies.…”

Section: Environmental Implicationsmentioning

confidence: 91%

Evaluation of environmental and economic implications of a cold‐weather aquaponic food production system using life cycle assessment and economic analysis

Ghamkhar

Hartleb

Rabas

et al. 2022

J of Industrial Ecology

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Aquaponics, in which fish and plants are grown in a symbiotic closed-loop industrial metabolism, are promising test beds to implement industrial ecology in food production at a commercial scale. These systems have the potential to enhance the environmental and economic performance of aquaculture systems by reducing the overall burden on natural ecosystems (i.e., reducing resource and emission-based impacts per unit of food produced). To holistically evaluate the environmental and economic implications of aquaponics, specifically in a cold-weather climate, Life Cycle Assessment (LCA) and Economic Analysis (EA) were performed on a Midwestern United States aquaponic system, using data from 3 years of annual operation cycles with varying fish species production; tilapia, conventional walleye, and hybrid walleye. For the LCA, environmental impacts were quantified using 10 midpoint indicators. Assessments indicated that 1-kg production of live-weight tilapia, conventional walleye, and hybrid walleye resulted in 20.2-13.8-11.7 kg CO 2 -eq, 23.0-7.8-3.9 g N-eq, and 0.2-0.3-0.4 kg SO 2 -eq, consecutively, using the investigated system. The most sensitive parameters for environmental impacts were heat, aquafeed, electricity, and infrastructure (in all scenarios).For EA, benefit to cost ratios (BCRs) and three other widely used indices were analyzed for production cycles. The BCRs were 0.47, 1.16, and 1.75 for tilapia, conventional walleye, and hybrid walleye, respectively (using a 10% discount rate and a 20-year horizon), highlighting the necessity of optimizing both cash inflows (e.g., energy costs) and outflows (plant and fish revenues) to achieve practical enhancement of return on investments. The major cost contributors were infrastructure, labor, and heat (contributing to >89% of total costs for all cycles). Suggested steps for in-effect improvement of the investigated aquaponic system's environmental and economic favorability include heat and infrastructure optimization by (a) applying effective heating strategies (e.g., advanced insulation techniques), and (b) expanding the system's operational lifespan (e.g., prevention of waste accumulation).

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Section: Environmental Implicationsmentioning

confidence: 91%

Evaluation of environmental and economic implications of a cold‐weather aquaponic food production system using life cycle assessment and economic analysis

Ghamkhar

Hartleb

Rabas

et al. 2022

J of Industrial Ecology

Self Cite

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“…5,6 Aquafeed is one of the main drivers of material and energy flows in aquaculture systems, ascribing to it a significant role with regard to environmental, economical, and technical aspects of aquaculture food production. 2,7,8 The contribution of aquafeeds to the overall environmental impacts, economic performance, and production quality of aquaculture systems has been distinctly highlighted and investigated in many recent studies. 9−15 Forage-sourced fish meal and fish oil are the traditional main sources of essential nutrients in formulated aquafeeds, making them the major material and energy inflows in aquafeed production.…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

“…Aquafeed is one of the main drivers of material and energy flows in aquaculture systems, ascribing to it a significant role with regard to environmental, economical, and technical aspects of aquaculture food production. ,, The contribution of aquafeeds to the overall environmental impacts, economic performance, and production quality of aquaculture systems has been distinctly highlighted and investigated in many recent studies. − Forage-sourced fish meal and fish oil are the traditional main sources of essential nutrients in formulated aquafeeds, making them the major material and energy inflows in aquafeed production . To prevent single-source dependency on a finite resource, there is a growing desire to implement alternative ingredients (to fish meal and fish oil) in aquafeed formulation to achieve acceptable production while mitigating the ecological burdens. − It is necessary to quantify the environmental trade-offs that may occur due to the usage of nonconventional aquafeed ingredients.…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Sustainable Aquafeeds: Using Aquafarmer Preference to Inform a Multi-criteria Decision Analysis

Ghamkhar

Hicks

2021

ACS Agric. Sci. Technol.

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Aquafeed is a major contributor to the sustainability of food production using aquaculture. Therefore, improving the environmental, economic, and societal performance of aquafeeds provides an opportunity to significantly enhance the sustainability of aquaculture practices, which make up the fastest-growing food sector. Fish meal and fish oil are traditionally the main sources of essential nutrients (e.g., protein and fatty acids) in aqua diets. However, increases in supply prices and limited natural resources (e.g., forage fish) have encouraged some stakeholders to seek alternative nutrient-rich options. This work provides a multidimensional assessment of current and promising future aquafeeds, utilizing multi-criteria decision analysis. The considered parameters include cost, environmental impacts, and nutrient inclusion. The results based on varying stakeholders’ perspectives indicate that the replacements of fish meal with plant-based soybean meal and fish oil with plant-based canola oil are the most favorable alternatives among those investigated to enhance the overall aquafeed performance in aquaculture food production.

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“…In the same aquaponic set-up, higher nitrogen losses and a lower nitrogen use efficiency were observed when European carp were farmed at high compared to low stocking density (Maucieri et al, 2020). On the other hand, other studies performed in RAS and semi-intensive systems showed a reduced EP when farming intensity and stocking density increased (Ghamkhar et al, 2021). The reduction of the eutrophication impact in high-density aquaponic systems might be achieved through the improvement of feeding strategies (i.e.…”

Section: Resultsmentioning

confidence: 91%

“…In fact, previous studies showed that as farming intensity increases (i.e. high technology, environmental control and fish stocking density) FCR improves (Ghamkhar et al, 2021).…”

Section: Resultsmentioning

confidence: 99%

Feeding Strategies and Rearing Techniques for a Sustainable Aquaculture

Bordignon¹

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Life cycle assessment of aquaculture systems: Does burden shifting occur with an increase in production intensity?

Cited by 30 publications

References 51 publications

Evaluation of environmental and economic implications of a cold‐weather aquaponic food production system using life cycle assessment and economic analysis

Evaluation of environmental and economic implications of a cold‐weather aquaponic food production system using life cycle assessment and economic analysis

Sustainable Aquafeeds: Using Aquafarmer Preference to Inform a Multi-criteria Decision Analysis

Feeding Strategies and Rearing Techniques for a Sustainable Aquaculture

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