Positive Effect of Suspended Culture to the Growth of Pectinid

Abstract

Scallop production from the wild is undeniably declining due to the natural and man-made perturbations. With this, aquaculture seems to be an essential way to restore and meet the economic demand in marine molluscs, which is one of the important sources of highly nutritious animal protein. Scallop culture falls into two categories: suspended and bottom culture. Though studies are available comparing the growth between these two different culture methods, information on the effect size as a quantitative measure of the magnitude of difference between these culture methods is still lacking. To address this gap, a meta-analysis was conducted which synthesized different available studies on growth of Pectinids using bottom and suspended cultures. The result of the analysis revealed that suspended culture has a significant positive effect on growth of Pectinids. Specifically, higher growth rates were observed in suspended than in the bottom culture. Sensitivity analysis indicates that the result of this meta-analysis was robust. The synergistic effect of food, temperature and biofouling acting in relation with other environmental variables that differ in surface and bottom waters plays a profound consequence in the growth of Pectinids. Therefore, information provided herein is very significant to aquaculturist and conservationist as basis on what culture method is best to adopt for better scallop production.