Investigating Cross‐Sectoral Synergies through Integrated Aquaculture, Fisheries, and Agriculture Phosphorus Assessments: A Case Study of Norway

Abstract

Summary Future phosphorus (P) scarcity and eutrophication risks demonstrate the need for systems‐wide P assessments. Despite the projected drastic increase in world‐wide fish production, P studies have yet to include the aquaculture and fisheries sectors, thus eliminating the possibility of assessing their relative importance and identifying opportunities for recycling. Using Norway as a case, this study presents the results of a current‐status integrated fisheries, aquaculture, and agriculture P flow analysis and identifies current sectoral linkages as well as potential cross‐sectoral synergies where P use can be optimized. A scenario was developed to shed light on how the projected 2050 fivefold Norwegian aquaculture growth will likely affect P demand and secondary P resources. The results indicate that, contrary to most other countries where agriculture dominates, in Norway, aquaculture and agriculture drive P consumption and losses at similar levels and secondary P recycling, both intra‐ and cross‐sectorally, is far from optimized. The scenario results suggest that the projected aquaculture growth will make the Norwegian aquaculture sector approximately 4 times as P intensive as compared to agriculture, in terms of both imported P and losses. This will create not only future environmental challenges, but also opportunities for cross‐sectoral P recycling that could help alleviate the mineral P demands of agriculture. Near‐term policy measures should focus on utilizing domestic fish scrap for animal husbandry and/or fish feed production. Long‐term efforts should focus on improving technology and environmental systems analysis methods to enable P recovery from aquaculture production and manure distribution in animal husbandry.

Waste products as alternative phosphorus fertilisers part I: inorganic P species affect fertilisation effects depending on soil pH

“…In Norway, the amount of P lost each year to the sea through fish sludge (9000 Mg P) is greater than the amount of P applied to land as mineral fertiliser (8500 Mg P, Hamilton et al 2015). Our results show that fish sludge has great potential as an alternative P fertiliser when applied to acidic soils.…”

“…Each year, Norway produces slaughter waste corresponding to 2200 Mg P (Hamilton et al 2015). Slaughter waste is also of great importance internationally, with European animal and vegetal waste accounting for 290 Gg P (Ott and Rechberger 2012).…”

“…Manure is the most important of all the secondary P resources in Norway, with a yearly accumulation of 12,000 Mg P (Hamilton et al 2015), of which cattle manure represents 6500 Mg P and poultry manure represents 1000 Mg P (Hamilton et al unpublished data). In Europe, 1600 Gg P are returned to agricultural land with manure each year, while 1080 Gg P are applied with mineral fertiliser (Ott and Rechberger 2012).…”

Phosphorus flows and balances of the European Union Member States

“…In contrast, PFA studies focus on P flows throughout entire society and take different sub-sectors and internal flows into consideration. In Europe, PFA studies have been conducted for the EU-15 (Ott and Rechberger, 2012), and at the national level for several European countries including Austria (Egle et al, 2014;Seyhan, 2006), Belgium (Flanders) (Coppens et al, 2013), Denmark (Klinglmair et al, submitted for publication), Finland (Antikainen et al, 2005(Antikainen et al, , 2008Saikku et al, 2007), France (Senthilkumar et al, 2012a,b), Germany (Gethke, 2012), Netherlands (de Buck et al, 2012Smit et al, 2010), Norway (Hamilton et al, 2015), Sweden (Linderholm et al, 2012a), Switzerland (Binder et al, 2009;Lamprecht et al, 2011), Turkey (Seyhan, 2006;Seyhan, 2009), and United Kingdom (Cooper and Carliell-Marquet, 2013). Compared to agricultural P balance studies, PFA studies show how P is used, reused and lost across society as a whole.…”

The global economic costs of substituting dietary protein from fish with meat, grains and legumes, and dairy

“…Measured by weight, aquaculture's output was equivalent to 25% of marine wild capture in 1990 and by 2013 actually exceeded it (Figure and Supporting Information Table S1, available on the Journal's website). Further expansion of aquaculture could make it feasible for fish production to keep up with global demand, but the prospects are highly problematic, with growing calls for regulation of environmental impacts associated with the sources of inputs and with marine pollution and health problems associated with dense stocking and highly concentrated wastes (Naylor et al., , ; Hamilton et al., ; Troell et al., ).…”