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Aquaculture , Integrated Multi-trophic (IMTA)

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Sustainable Food Production

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Abbreviations

Biomitigative services provided by extractive aquaculture:

The environmental, economic, and societal services and benefits received by ecosystems – in their broad definition which includes humans who depend on them – from the conditions and processes of cultivated species, such as seaweeds extracting inorganic nutrients and suspension- and deposit-feeders extracting organic particles recaptured from the activities of fed aquaculture (e.g., fish or shrimp aquaculture), to maintain their health. Biomitigative services can also be provided by natural populations of similar organisms.

Integrated multi-trophic aquaculture (IMTA):

The farming, in proximity, of aquaculture species from different trophic levels, and with complementary ecosystem functions, in a way that allows one species’ uneaten feed and wastes, nutrients, and by-products to be recaptured and converted into fertilizer, feed, and energy for the other crops, and to take advantage of synergistic interactions between species. Farmers combine fed aquaculture (e.g., finfish or shrimps) with extractive aquaculture, which utilizes the inorganic (e.g., seaweeds or other aquatic vegetation) and organic (e.g., suspension- and deposit-feeders) excess nutrients from fed aquaculture for their growth. The aim is to ecologically engineer balanced systems for environmental sustainability (biomitigative services for improved ecosystem health), economic stability (improved output, lower costs, product diversification, risk reduction, and job creation in disadvantaged communities) and societal acceptability (better management practices, improved regulatory governance, and appreciation of differentiated and safe products).

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Acknowledgments

I greatly appreciate the support this work received from the Natural Sciences and Engineering Research Council of Canada (NSERC) strategic Canadian Integrated Multi-Trophic Aquaculture Network (CIMTAN) in collaboration with its partners, Fisheries and Oceans Canada, the University of New Brunswick, Cooke Aquaculture Inc., Kyuquot SEAfoods Ltd. and Marine Harvest Canada Ltd.

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. Canadian Integrated Multi-Trophic Aquaculture Network (CIMTAN), University of New Brunswick, 5050, Saint John, NB, Canada

    Dr. Thierry Chopin

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  1. Dr. Thierry Chopin
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Correspondence to Thierry Chopin .

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Editors and Affiliations

  1. Department de Produccio Vegetal i Ciencia Forestal, Universitat de Lleida/ICREA, Lleida, Spain

    Paul Christou

  2. Institució Catalana de Recerca i Estudis Avançats (ICREA), Barcelona, Spain

    Paul Christou

  3. Department of Crop and Forest Sciences, University of Lleida, Lleida, Spain

    Roxana Savin

  4. University of New England, Marine Science Center, Biddeford, ME, USA

    Barry A. Costa-Pierce

  5. Department of Animal and Dairy Science Breeding and Genetics, University of Georgia, Athens, GA, USA

    Ignacy Misztal

  6. The Roslin Institute and Royal (Dick) School of Veterinary Studies, Division of Developmental Biology, University of Edinburgh, Midlothian, Scotland, UK

    C. Bruce A. Whitelaw

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Chopin, T. (2013). Aquaculture , Integrated Multi-trophic (IMTA) . In: Christou, P., Savin, R., Costa-Pierce, B.A., Misztal, I., Whitelaw, C.B.A. (eds) Sustainable Food Production. Springer, New York, NY. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-1-4614-5797-8_173

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