Sustainable Aquaculture

Aquaculture is one of the fastest-growing food-producing sectors worldwide, and provides slightly more than half of all fishes for human food. This is one of the most promising sectors of the bioeconomy to promote sustainable development in this millennium. However, to meet this objective, aquaculture must become more sustainable. Sustainable aquaculture refers to the cost-effective production of aquatic organisms, which maintains a harmonious and continuous interaction with the ecosystems and the local communities. Understanding the interactions among environmental, social and economic features is essential to plan sustainable activities.

This section aims to provide a forum for presenting the results of studies on aquaculture as a sustainable socio-environmental system to generate products, services, and wealth. This includes the culture of all aquatic organisms in freshwater, brackish, and sea water. Case studies as models to understand complex processes are welcomed.

The scope of this section includes studies on:

• Integrated environmental, social, and economic dimensions of sustainability in aquaculture;
• The development of new sustainable production systems or improving the sustainability of the currently used aquaculture systems;
• Structure and function of aquaculture systems to base changes towards sustainability, such as nutrient and energy budgets and flows, interactions among species, food webs, and biodiversity inside culture systems;
• Integrated aquaculture systems, such as multi-trophic (IMTA) and multi-niche aquaculture, which includes aquaponics, agri-aquaculture, periphyton-based aquaculture, fish and shrimp culture in rice fields and any other system using the complementary functions of different species;
• Assessing the sustainability of used aquaculture systems;
• Innovative technologies that can improve sustainability;
• Aquaculture and interactions with the surrounding environment;
• Recycling the wastes of aquaculture to improve circularity;
• Description and management of greenhouse gases and polluting effluents in aquaculture systems;
• Ecosystem services (natural contribution to people) provided by aquaculture;
• Applying the concepts of ecological, environmental, circular, and doughnut economy to aquaculture systems;
• Governance and public policies towards sustainability;
• Contribution of aquaculture to reach the targets defined in the sustainable development goals of Agenda 2030.