Sustainable growth of non-fed aquaculture can generate valuable ecosystem benefits

Barrett, Luke T.; Theuerkauf, Seth J.; Rose, Julie M.; Alleway, Heidi K.; Bricker, Suzanne B.; Parker, Matt; Petrolia, Daniel R.; Jones, Robert C.

doi:10.1016/j.ecoser.2021.101396

Cited by 63 publications

(43 citation statements)

References 164 publications

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“…As with much marine infrastructure, it remains unclear whether kelp farms increase species abundance and recruitment, or simply attract and amass organisms away from other habitats, like fish aggregating devices (Radulovich et al 2014;Gentry et al 2020;Corrigan et al 2022). In particular, this could occur if kelp farms alter settlement dynamics by intercepting planktonic larvae and propagules that would otherwise disperse elsewhere (Barrett et al 2022). This may drain surrounding populations and impact local/regional biodiversity, especially if they act as ecological traps.…”

Section: Novel Communities Of Kelp Farmsmentioning

confidence: 99%

“…Global growth in aquaculture has been increasingly met by a demand for ecological sustainability and a growing recognition of the environmental benefits that the industry may be able to support (Buschmann et al 2017;Kim et al 2017;Gentry et al 2020). With the need to minimise or avoid negative environmental impacts, the ability of some aquaculture operations to deliver an environmentally sustainable product and provide ecosystem services (Hasselström et al 2018;Theuerkauf et al 2021;Barrett et al 2022) will be an important component of the future development of the industry. This is especially true for seaweed aquaculture, which has grown rapidly in both scale and interest over recent years.…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

“…Indeed, it is becoming evident that there is more complexity to the provisioning of many of these ecosystem services than widely recognised (e.g. ecosystem exports/subsidies and biogeochemical processes affecting nutrient and carbon cycling and sequestration [Bach et al 2021;Gallagher et al 2022;Wright et al 2022]), and that there may be important trade-offs to consider (discussed by Hasselström et al 2018;Gentry et al 2020;Barrett et al 2022).…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

“…If so, kelp farms may provide similarly valuable services that could contribute to restoration, conservation, or socioeconomic outcomes (discussed by Gentry et al 2020;Layton et al 2020), as may be the case for some other forms of aquaculture (e.g. shellfish; Theuerkauf et al 2021;Barrett et al 2022). However, important theoretical and practical issues remain, as there is a growing recognition that any biodiversity benefits of kelp farms may be minor or highly variable (e.g.…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

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Farms and forests: evaluating the biodiversity benefits of kelp aquaculture

et al. 2022

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The biodiversity benefits of kelp aquaculture and afforestation are increasingly acclaimed as the industry continues to grow and develop globally, however, whether farmed kelp can provide this ecosystem service remains unclear. Using peer-reviewed literature, we evaluated whether kelp farms provide biodiversity benefits, and identified only 23 studies that discussed the effects of kelp aquaculture on biodiversity, half of which were broad reviews that only assessed the concept of ‘biodiversity’ peripherally (e.g. did not focus on specific responses or taxa). There is also a general lack of experimental research on the topic. Based on the evidence, it seems that kelp farms can create habitat via changes to the local environment, particularly through the provision of structure and changed nutrient cycling. While this can lead to increased abundance and diversity among certain taxa (e.g. fouling organisms), it seems that kelp farms typically create novel habitats that support distinct communities not equivalent to natural kelp forests. Moreover, the potential for kelp farms to support biodiversity depends on a range of operational factors, many of which may be at odds with farming objectives that require the harvest and removal of the habitat that farms provide. While more work needs to be done to address the complexity of comparisons between kelp farms and forests, especially at appropriate experimental scales, it currently seems unlikely that kelp farms will act as kelp forests and deliver meaningful biodiversity outcomes. We should instead recognise farms for providing their own valuable services and support restoration and conservation practices of kelp forests to pursue biodiversity outcomes.

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Section: Novel Communities Of Kelp Farmsmentioning

confidence: 99%

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

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Farms and forests: evaluating the biodiversity benefits of kelp aquaculture

et al. 2022

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“…While ecosystem services are by de nition anthropogenic, there is a growing body of work around the potential for aquaculture's ability to provide direct bene ts to the local ecosystems (Barrett et al 2022). These local impacts are the foundation of restorative aquaculture, de ned by the Nature Conservancy as "commercial or subsistence aquaculture providing direct ecological bene ts the environment, with the potential to generate net positive environmental outcomes" (TNC 2021).…”

Section: Ecosystem Servicesmentioning

confidence: 99%

Consumer Willingness to Pay for Farmed Seaweed with Education on Ecosystem Services

Boduc¹,

Griffin

Byron³

2022

Preprint

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Kelp aquaculture in the US is expected to grow significantly in the coming years. While the market potential is substantial, increasing demand is widely seen as a key step towards realizing this potential. Recent work on restorative aquaculture practices has led to increased study and valuation of ecosystem services of kelp aquaculture. This study demonstrates the efficacy of education on ecosystem services of kelp aquaculture as marketing material for kelp end products. Through an online willingness to pay survey, this study found a significant increase in consumer willingness to pay for end products after a brief education on ecosystem services. Price point of the product, income, gender, knowledge of ecosystem services, and frequency of kelp product consumption were found to be significant predictors of the magnitude of change in consumer willingness to pay. Of the four major categories of ecosystem services, supporting services were reported to be most important to consumers. These findings can guide private and public organizations in marketing efforts to drive consumer behavior and to actualize the large potential of kelp aquaculture in the US.

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Diet of snapper (Chrysophrys auratus) in green‐lipped mussel farms and adjacent soft‐sediment habitats

Underwood

Reis

Jeffs

2023

Aquaculture Fish & Fisheries

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Wild fish utilise aquaculture habitats for shelter and/or food resources. It is often assumed that fish respond to feed input, the abundance of the farmed species or the associated assemblage of biofouling which naturally colonises the structural habitats.However, few studies have directly analysed the composition of the diet of fish within aquaculture habitats, and of these most have focused on fed finfish aquaculture. Snapper are commonly present as adults within coastal mussel farms and tend to become a resident species of these farms. Therefore, they are a suitable case study species for exploring differences in diet between natural and aquaculture habitats. This study investigated the gut contents of snapper in soft-sediment habitats within and outside of New Zealand green-lipped mussel farms. Visual gut analysis and DNA metabarcoding methods were used to provide complementary analyses on the composition of gut contents between the mussel farm and natural (i.e., control) sites. Snapper within mussel farms were consistently found to have consumed different prey groups compared to the control snapper. Prey groups identified from mussel farm snapper gut contents could be directly linked to species commonly present in the farms, that is cultured green-lipped mussels, blue mussels and barnacle biofouling. There was good alignment between the visual gut and genetic analyses for the key species identified. Overall, the results show that the highly abundant prey groups consumed by snapper in mussel farm habitats are likely to be beneficial to the snapper population, reducing foraging effort and potentially supplying more nutritious prey. These findings provide evidence towards the supporting services of mussel farm habitats through the provision of food resources.

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Sustainable growth of non-fed aquaculture can generate valuable ecosystem benefits

Cited by 63 publications

References 164 publications

Farms and forests: evaluating the biodiversity benefits of kelp aquaculture

Farms and forests: evaluating the biodiversity benefits of kelp aquaculture

Consumer Willingness to Pay for Farmed Seaweed with Education on Ecosystem Services

Diet of snapper (Chrysophrys auratus) in green‐lipped mussel farms and adjacent soft‐sediment habitats

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