The role of bivalve aquaculture as a carbon sink is highly debated, without a general consensus on the components to include in the budget. This study proposes to estimate the terms of the budget using a scope-for-growth-based model. The model was applied at 12 Mediterranean sites, with environmental forcings provided by operational oceanography data spanning over 12 years.
View Article and Find Full Text PDFThe rapid development of intensive fish farming has been associated with the spreading of infectious diseases, pathogens and parasites. One such parasite is (Platyhelminthes: Monogenea), which commonly infects cultured gilthead seabream ()-a vital species in Mediterranean aquaculture. The parasite attaches to fish gills and can cause epizootics in sea cages with relevant consequences for fish health and associated economic losses for fish farmers.
View Article and Find Full Text PDFIn recent years recurrent bivalve mass mortalities considerably increased around the world, causing the collapse of natural and farmed populations. Venice Lagoon has historically represented one of the major production areas of the Manila clam Ruditapes philippinarum in Europe. However, in the last 20 years a 75 % decrease in the annual production has been experienced.
View Article and Find Full Text PDFActive restoration is necessary to enhance the recovery of Ostrea reefs, which contribute to many ecosystem services. Restoration can be integrated within aquaculture practices, bringing positive environmental changes while maximising space utilisation. The restoration project MAREA (MAtchmaking Restoration Ecology and Aquaculture) aims to bring back in the North-West Adriatic addressing the feasibility of its cultivation.
View Article and Find Full Text PDFThe virtual, digital counterpart of a physical object, referred as digital twin, derives from the Internet of Things (IoT), and involves real-time acquisition and processing of large data sets. A fully implemented system ultimately enables real-time and remote management, as well as the reproduction of real and forecasted scenarios. Under the emerging framework of Precision Fish Farming, which brings control-engineering principles to fish production, we set up digital twin prototypes for land-based finfish farms.
View Article and Find Full Text PDFDefining sustainability goals is a crucial but difficult task because it often involves the quantification of multiple interrelated and sometimes conflicting components. This complexity may be exacerbated by climate change, which will increase environmental vulnerability in aquaculture and potentially compromise the ability to meet the needs of a growing human population. Here, we developed an approach to inform sustainable aquaculture by quantifying spatio-temporal shifts in critical trade-offs between environmental costs and benefits using the time to reach the commercial size as a possible proxy of economic implications of aquaculture under climate change.
View Article and Find Full Text PDFA new R software package, RAC, is presented. RAC allows to simulate the rearing cycle of 4 species, finfish and shellfish, highly important in terms of production in the Mediterranean Sea. The package works both at the scale of the individual and of the farmed population.
View Article and Find Full Text PDFEnviron Toxicol Chem
April 2009
A global uncertainty and sensitivity analysis (UA/SA) of a state-of-the-art, food-web bioaccumulation model was carried out. We used an efficient screening analysis technique to identify the subset of the most relevant input factors among the whole set of 227 model parameters. A quantitative UA/SA was then applied to this subset to rank the relevance of the parameters and to partition the variance of the model output among them by means of a nonlinear regression of the outcomes of 1,000 Monte Carlo simulations.
View Article and Find Full Text PDFThe ecological risk posed by 2,3,7,8-polychlorodibenzo-p-dioxins and furans (PCDD/Fs) and dioxin-like polychlorobiphenyl (PCB) congeners to five edible fish species of the aquatic food web of Venice Lagoon, Italy, was estimated by applying a state-of the-art kinetic bioaccumulation model. Site-specific data were used to define a representative food web. The experimental data set for model validation and application included PCB and PCDD/F congener concentrations in sediments, in water, and in five organisms (both invertebrates and fish).
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