Quantifying greenhouse gas emissions from global aquaculture

Michael J Macleod,Mohammad Mamun-Ur-Rashid,David H F Robb,Mohammad R Hasan

doi:10.1038/s41598-020-68231-8

Michael J Macleod, Mohammad Mamun-Ur-Rashid + Show 2 more

Open Access

https://doi.org/10.1038/s41598-020-68231-8

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Abstract

Global aquaculture makes an important contribution to food security directly (by increasing food availability and accessibility) and indirectly (as a driver of economic development). In order to enable sustainable expansion of aquaculture, we need to understand aquaculture’s contribution to global greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions and how it can be mitigated. This study quantifies the global GHG emissions from aquaculture (excluding the farming of aquatic plants), with a focus on using modern, commercial feed formulations for the main species groups and geographic regions. Here we show that global aquaculture accounted for approximately 0.49% of anthropogenic GHG emissions in 2017, which is similar in magnitude to the emissions from sheep production. The modest emissions reflect the low emissions intensity of aquaculture, compared to terrestrial livestock (in particular cattle, sheep and goats), which is due largely to the absence of enteric CH4 in aquaculture, combined with the high fertility and low feed conversion ratios of finfish and shellfish.

Highlights

Global aquaculture makes an important contribution to food security directly and indirectly
We show that global aquaculture accounted for approximately 0.49% of anthropogenic greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions in 2017, which is similar in magnitude to the emissions from sheep production
The emissions are calculated for aquaculture of aquatic animals only, and do not include the emissions arising from the production of aquatic plants, which constitute a significant proportion of global aquaculture production

Summary

Introduction

Global aquaculture makes an important contribution to food security directly (by increasing food availability and accessibility) and indirectly (as a driver of economic development). In order to enable sustainable expansion of aquaculture, we need to understand aquaculture’s contribution to global greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions and how it can be mitigated. This study quantifies the global GHG emissions from aquaculture (excluding the farming of aquatic plants), with a focus on using modern, commercial feed formulations for the main species groups and geographic regions. One of the key environmental (and social) concerns is climate change, the greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions that arise along food supply chains. In order to enable sustainable expansion of aquaculture, we need to understand aquaculture’s contribution to global GHG emissions and how they can be mitigated. We apply a method for quantifying the GHG emissions arising from the culture of the main aquatic animals reared for human consumption, i.e.: bivalves, shrimps/prawns and finfish (catfish, cyprinids, Indian major carps, salmonids and tilapias). We have used recent commercial feed formulations for the main species groups and geographic regions, thereby providing a more up to date and detailed analysis than is generally provided in academic literature

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