Abstract
Aquaculture has been responsible for an impressive growth in the global supply of seafood. As of 2016, more than half of all global seafood production comes from aquaculture. To meet future global seafood demands, there is need and opportunity to expand marine aquaculture production in ways that are both socially and ecologically sustainable. This requires integrating biophysical, social, and engineering sciences. Such interdisciplinary research is difficult due to the complexity and multi-scale aspects of marine aquaculture and inherent challenges researchers face working across disciplines. To this end, we developed a framework based on Elinor Ostrom’s social–ecological system framework (SESF) to guide interdisciplinary research on marine aquaculture. We first present the framework and the social–ecological system variables relevant to research on marine aquaculture and then illustrate one application of this framework to interdisciplinary research underway in Maine, the largest producer of marine aquaculture products in the United States. We use the framework to compare oyster aquaculture in two study regions, with a focus on factors influencing the social and biophysical carrying capacity. We conclude that the flexibility provided by the SESF is well suited to inform interdisciplinary research on marine aquaculture, especially comparative, cross-case analysis.
Highlights
Aquaculture, or the cultivation of aquatic species, including land-based and open-ocean production, has been responsible for an impressive growth in the supply of global seafood, providing more fish for consumption than capture fisheries since 2014 [1]
Integrating marine aquaculture into coastal regions in ways that are both socially and ecologically sustainable requires thinking about these systems as coupled, social–ecological systems (SESs) requiring interdisciplinary research [4,5,119]
The social–ecological system framework (SESF) provides an avenue for researchers to understand different disciplinary approaches, languages, and norms while coordinating the development of interdisciplinary research questions and data collection efforts [120,121]
Summary
Aquaculture, or the cultivation of aquatic species, including land-based and open-ocean production, has been responsible for an impressive growth in the supply of global seafood, providing more fish for consumption than capture fisheries since 2014 [1]. Scholars call for a more holistic approach to aquaculture, where the implementation of such systems produce economic, social, and ecological benefit [4,5,6,7,8,9]. Such an approach should account for ecologically appropriate scale and engineering designs, be economically and socially efficient, and use “farmer first” research and extension methods and a sustainability science toolkit [4,10]. A framework providing a common vocabulary can facilitate communication among researchers concerned with SES sustainability [13,14]
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