Bio mitigation based on integrated multi trophic aquaculture in temperate coastal waters: practice, assessment, and challenges

Abstract

In general, aquaculture wastes from traditional aquatic organism cultivation rapidly deteriorate the water quality of the surrounding ecosystems, endangering animals living in the area. The integrated multitrophic aquaculture (IMTA) system is a bio-mitigation strategy to alleviate the adverse impacts caused by aquafarming pollutants on the environment and aquatic species. This study provides an overview of the IMTA system, explains the interactive processes among the different trophic levels, summarizes the major practices being followed around the temperate coastal waters with a field case study in Japan, and discusses the assessment of IMTA bio-mitigation efficiency through experimental greatly dependent on the customs and market values in the local IMTA practice. Bio-mitigation efficiency acquired in a land-based experiment exhibits its limitation in approach and conducts a comprehensive analysis on the possibility of applying numerical models to evaluate IMTA effectiveness. The selection of a suitable candidate organism is estimating that in the same or different culture conditions with various biomasses of extractive species. However, in open water experiments, it is difficult to evaluate the bio-mitigation effect of extractive species because the initial biomass ratio (IBR) of the extractive to target species is too small. Alternatively, the possibility of applying existing numerical models to assess IMTA is relatively low. In conclusion, an optimally designed large-scale IMTA experiment is required, in which the IBR of the extractive to target species is adequately considered, and a full-scale IMTA model should be further improved with a database of individual-based submodels for IMTA candidate organisms.

Identifying the Suitable Integrated Multi-trophic Aquaculture (IMTA) Species Combination for Penaeus monodon (Fabricius, 1798) for a Sustainable Pond Aquaculture

“…While co-culture with finfishes brought in additional waste production from feces, the N and P levels in ponds remain optimal (Chopin et al 2012), as observed in this study. A similar concept was discussed by Zhang et al (2019) that feed species when co-cultured with nutrient absorbers like the M. modulaides, P. viridis, U. fasciata, and G. verrucosa can minimize the risk of eutrophication.…”

“…It was supported by Chopin (2006), indicating that a culturing technology that mimics the natural ecosystem and its efficient recycling of energy and nutrient can be long-term sustainable. Zhang et al (2019) emphasized that integrated multitrophic aquaculture (IMTA) involves fed species with organic extractive species and inorganic extractive species that utilize wastes from aquaculture for their growth. It is engineered to utilize the uneaten feed at different trophic levels and convert the organic nutrient to an inorganic substance that can be used by the heterotrophs (Chopin et al 2012).…”

From the sea to aquafeed: A perspective overview

“…MIMTA) demands creating a comprehensive database of individual-based sub-models for IMTA candidate organisms as recently suggested. 251 Thus, besides the need for aquafeed, marine macroinvertebrates may contribute to water quality close to aquafarms, in integrated mariculture composed of filter/deposit-feeding animals such as sponges and echinoderms. 252 For the sea cucumber Holothuria tubulosa as one of the most commercially exploited echinoderms, the ability of organic waste consumption from fish farms was recently described, making it a strong candidate for the potential development of IMTA in the Mediterranean region.…”

Effect of feeding rate on growth and feed conversion ratio in the cultivation recirculation systems of multi tropic model

“…Some of these studies shown a tendency that the higher the feeding rate to a certain extent increases the growth performance, and decreases at a certain feeding rate. Therefore, more research is needed to know the optimal feeding rate for aquaculture species, specifically the Integrated Multitrophic Aquaculture (IMTA) model, whose system can recycle feed waste, such as feed waste and feces into a source of nutrition for other organisms [21][22][23]. There is still a lack of available information and knowledge on the feeding rate issue in IMTA.…”