Ecosystem Services of Ecosystem Approach to Mariculture: Providing an Unprecedented Opportunity for the Reform of China’s Sustainable Aquaculture

Abstract

China is the biggest provider of mariculture products, and the industry is still growing rapidly. Increasing scientific evidence indicates that mariculture may provide valuable ecosystem goods and services in China. Here, we performed a systematic literature review of studies with the aim of understanding the ecosystem services of mariculture and a comprehensive review of ecosystem approaches that may improve mariculture ecosystem services and goods in China. We highlight four ecosystem services functions in China, including food supply, nutrient extraction, carbon sequestration, and biodiversity conservation. Given the further reform of China’s mariculture, we outlined several ecosystem approaches including integrated multi-trophic aquaculture (IMTA), carrying capacity assessment and monitoring, marine spatial planning, and waste treatment and recirculating mariculture system. We conclude that the ecosystem services of the ecosystem approach to mariculture provide an unprecedented opportunity for the reform of China’s sustainable aquaculture. Finally, a synthesis of sustainable development of mariculture, along with the five recommendations for future mariculture development in China, is outlined.

Investigating Potential Ecological Benefits From Mariculture

“…China is the largest mariculture producer worldwide, of which the mariculture production ranked first in 2020 (Xu et al., 2022), contributing more than 65% to the global mariculture production (Zhou et al., 2022). The main characteristics of mariculture in China are wide variety, rich diversity, low trophic levels, high ecological efficiency and large biological output (Tang et al., 2016).…”

“…At present, China is at the forefront of IMTA development, and this mode has been practiced in some regions: fish-shellfish-seaweed and fish-seaweed IMTA are popular in Zhejiang, Fujian, Guangdong; shrimp-shellfish IMTA is popular in Shandong and Jiangsu; shellfish-seaweed IMTA has been deployed in almost all coastal regions of China; mangrove-restoration-based IMTA has been developed in Guangxi (Zhou et al, 2022). On this basis, some studies have estimated the ecological benefits of the IMTA system based on ecosystem services evaluation: Tang et al (2013) investigated the service value of food provision and climate regulation under different mariculture modes in Sanggou Bay, and their results showed that the service value provided by IMTA was much higher than that of single mariculture mode.…”

Spatial–Temporal Characteristics and Influencing Factors of Marine Fishery Eco-Efficiency in China: Evidence from Coastal Regions

“…Currently, research on ecological efficiency primarily centers around the following aspects: (1) Research objects of ecological efficiency. Scholars have combined the concept of eco-efficiency with economic production practices, involving industry [5][6][7][8], energy [9,10], marine [11][12][13][14], agriculture [15,16], tourism [17,18], urban development [19][20][21][22] and many other fields. The economic and environmental performance was evaluated via an empirical method, and ecological efficiency was used as an optimization strategy in the actual production process.…”

Marine Heterotrophic Nitrification–Aerobic Denitrification Process Treating Mariculture Wastewater: Microbiome and Resistome Responses to Multiantibiotic Stresses

“…As the largest mariculture country, China accounted for 65.9% of global mariculture production in 2018 . Consequently, large amounts of mariculture wastewater (MWW) containing organic and nitrogen substrates are produced and pose a serious threat to marine ecosystems .…”