LCA of aquaculture systems: methodological issues and potential improvements

Bohnes, Florence Alexia; Laurent, Alexis

doi:10.1007/s11367-018-1517-x

Cited by 68 publications

(66 citation statements)

References 85 publications

(71 reference statements)

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“…type of culture, cultured species or geographical location) and the lessons learned from the study were extracted and categorized. The current review focuses on the two latter aspects, as an analysis of the LCA methodological aspects of the studies is the focus of another paper (Bohnes & Laurent ). Nonetheless, some central methodological aspects of importance for the analysis of the findings (like the functional unit) are also addressed here.…”

Section: Review Methodologymentioning

confidence: 99%

“…We chose to harmonize the cases based on the live‐weight product quantity because of the large amount of studies using this type of functional unit (78%). The relevance of such a functional unit is discussed in a follow‐up paper, focusing on methodological aspects (Bohnes & Laurent ). It is worth noting that no further harmonization of the results was performed (e.g.…”

Section: Review Methodologymentioning

confidence: 99%

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Life cycle assessments of aquaculture systems: a critical review of reported findings with recommendations for policy and system development

Bohnes

Hauschild

Schlundt

2018

Reviews in Aquaculture

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130

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The aquaculture sector is anticipated to be a keystone in food production systems in the coming decades. However, it is associated with potentially important environmental damages caused by its contribution to eutrophication or climate change, for example. To comprehensively quantify those impacts, life cycle assessment (LCA) studies have been conducted on several seafood farming systems for the past 15 years. But, what major findings and common trends can we draw from this pool of studies? What can we learn to provide recommendations to decision and policymakers in the aquaculture sector? To address these questions, we performed a critical review of 65 LCA studies of aquaculture systems from the open literature. We conducted quantitative analyses to explore which impacts can be identified as dominating and to compare different types of aquaculture systems. Our results evidenced that the feed production is a key driver for climate change, acidification, cumulative energy use and net primary production use, while the farming process is a key driver for eutrophication. We also found that different aquaculture systems and technology components may exert considerably different environmental impacts. Based on identified patterns and comparisons, we therefore provided specific recommendations to aquaculture stakeholders for future policy and system development. Overall, the analysis of existing studies demonstrates that important insights can be gained by applying LCA to aquaculture systems, and, to move towards an environmentally sustainable aquaculture sector, we recommend its systematic use in the design of new aquaculture systems or policies, and/or in the evaluation and optimization of existing ones.

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Section: Review Methodologymentioning

confidence: 99%

Section: Review Methodologymentioning

confidence: 99%

Life cycle assessments of aquaculture systems: a critical review of reported findings with recommendations for policy and system development

Bohnes

Hauschild

Schlundt

2018

Reviews in Aquaculture

Self Cite

130

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“…A large percentage of currently published studies use greenhouse gas emissions (CO 2 E) as the sole comparable environmental impact category considered, while also quantifying considerations such as energy and water consumption. Bohnes and Laurent (2019) reviewed LCAs of aquaculture studies and found that in 98% of the studies CO 2 E was utilized as an impact category, whereas abiotic depletion was applied in only 22% of the studies published. Although a portion of the literature includes other impact categories, such as acidification, eutrophication, and abiotic depletion (fossil fuels) (Hindelang et al 2014;Cohen et al 2018;Maucieri et al 2018).…”

Section: Environmental Implicationsmentioning

confidence: 99%

“…Although a portion of the literature includes other impact categories, such as acidification, eutrophication, and abiotic depletion (fossil fuels) (Hindelang et al 2014;Cohen et al 2018;Maucieri et al 2018). Bohnes and Laurent (2019) reviewed LCAs of aquaculture studies and found that in 98% of the studies CO 2 E was utilized as an impact category, whereas abiotic depletion was applied in only 22% of the studies published. Questions have also been raised as to whether the currently utilized suites of impact categories capture critical aspects of seafood production, such as resource depletion due to overfishing for forage fish (Froehlich et al 2018).…”

Section: Environmental Implicationsmentioning

confidence: 99%

Sustainable Seafood and Vegetable Production: Aquaponics as a Potential Opportunity in Urban Areas

Ghamkhar

Ashton

et al. 2019

Integr Envir Assess & Manag

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Global population growth will increase pressures on current food systems in order to supply adequate protein and produce to the increasingly urban world population. The environmental impact of food production is a critical area of study as it influences water and air quality, ecosystem functions, and energy consumption. Aquaponics (in which seafood and vegetables are grown in a closed‐loop system) has the potential to reduce the environmental impact of food production. A review of the current environmental and economic considerations is provided in order to identify current research gaps. Research gaps exist with respect to 1) diversity of aquatic and plant species studied; 2) inconsistent bounds, scope, and lifetime across studies; 3) diverse allocation of the environmental and economic impacts to the coproducts; 4) scale of systems considered; 5) transportation of produced food; and 6) presence of heavy metals, pests, and pathogens with human health implications. These aspects require increased attention to close the existing gaps prior to widescale deployment of these systems for increased sustainable food production toward satisficing human needs. Integr Environ Assess Manag 2019;00:1–12. © 2019 SETAC

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“…While some salmonid aquaculture LCA publications include the farm-level energy use, few of them give a breakdown of the total electricity use at the most important subprocess level. As emphasized in a recent review of LCA on aquaculture systems by Bohnes and Laurent (2018), one future need of aquaculture LCAs is to construct aquaculture life cycle inventory (LCI) databases with a special need for developing countries. This paper presented the results of LCI and life cycle impacts of Atlantic salmon (S. salar) harvested in a commercial-scale indoor RAS farm in northern China.…”

mentioning

confidence: 99%

Life cycle assessment of recirculating aquaculture systems: A case of Atlantic salmon farming in China

Song

Liu

Pettersen

et al. 2019

J of Industrial Ecology

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Recirculating aquaculture systems (RAS) are an alternative technology to tackle the major environmental challenges associated with conventional cage culture systems. In order to systematically assess the environmental performance of RAS farming, it is important to take the whole life cycle into account so as to avoid ad hoc and suboptimal environmental measures. So far, the application of life cycle assessment (LCA) in aquaculture, especially to indoor RAS, is still in progress. This study reports on an LCA of Atlantic salmon harvested at an indoor RAS farm in northern China. Results showed that 1 tonne live‐weight salmon production required 7,509 kWh farm‐level electricity and generated 16.7 tonnes of CO2 equivalent (eq), 106 kg of SO2 eq, 2.4 kg of P eq, and 108 kg of N eq (cradle‐to‐farm gate). In particular, farm‐level electricity use and feed product were identified as primary contributors to eight of nine impact categories assessed (54–95% in total), except the potential marine eutrophication (MEU) impact (dominated by the grow‐out effluents). Among feed ingredients (on a dry‐weight basis), chicken meal (5%) and krill meal (8%) dominated six and three, respectively, of the nine impact categories. Suggested environmental improvement measures for this indoor RAS farm included optimization of stocking density, feeding management, grow‐out effluent treatment, substitution of feed ingredients, and selection of electricity generation sources. In a generic context, this study can contribute to a better understanding of the life cycle environmental impacts of land‐based salmon RAS operations, as well as science‐based communication among stakeholders on more eco‐friendly farmed salmon.

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LCA of aquaculture systems: methodological issues and potential improvements

Cited by 68 publications

References 85 publications

Life cycle assessments of aquaculture systems: a critical review of reported findings with recommendations for policy and system development

Life cycle assessments of aquaculture systems: a critical review of reported findings with recommendations for policy and system development

Sustainable Seafood and Vegetable Production: Aquaponics as a Potential Opportunity in Urban Areas

Life cycle assessment of recirculating aquaculture systems: A case of Atlantic salmon farming in China

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