M4.2 Marine aquafarms

M4. Anthropogenic marine biome

M4

Profile summary

Full profile at https://global-ecosystems.org/explore/groups/M4.2

Brief description

High-productivity marine aquafarms are enclosed areas for the breeding, rearing, and harvesting of marine plants and animals, including finfish like salmon, molluscs, crustaceans, and algae. These low-diversity communities are dominated by the harvested species, maintained at a high densities. Non-harvested species may be controlled as pests, using antibiotics, herbicides, or culling. Aquafarms in coastal or open ocean waters are exposed to associated physical processes, but on land they are in environmentally controlled tanks and ponds.

Key features

High density, productive, enclosed systems with variable permeability, for breeding and harvesting marine species. Allochthonous nutrients from human sources is common..

Overview of distribution

Largely coastal or shore-based, some open-ocean facilities.

Map description

Marine ecoregions (Spalding et al. 2008) containing marine aquafarms were identified by consulting global and regional reviews, suitability maps (Gentry et al. 2017) and expertise of authors, proofed by specialist reviewers. These were clipped to the extent of the marine ‘shelf’ base layer as mapped by Harris et al. (2014b) and converted to 30 arc second spatial resolution. Occurrences were aggregated to half degree spatial resolution..

Map code and version: M4.2.web.orig v1.0. DOI

Version history

Profile versions

  • v2.1 (2022-04-06): DA Keith; M Beveridge; LB Firth.1
  • v2.01 (NA): NA.
  • v2.0 (2020-05-28): DA Keith; M Beveridge; LB Firth.
  • v1.0 (2020-01-20): DA Keith.

Available maps

Read more details about the current map versions here.

  • Indicative Map (code: M4.2.IM.orig, version v1.0)
  • Web navigation (code: M4.2.web.orig, version v1.0)

Read more details about older or alternative versions of maps for this functional group.

References

Main references

References used in the different versions of the profiles.

  • Beveridge M (2008) Cage Aquaculture Wiley, Oxford DOI:10.1002/9780470995761
  • Froehlich HE, Smith A, Gentry RR, Halpern BS (2017) Offshore aquaculture: I know it when I see it Frontiers in Marine Science 4, 154.

Map references

References used in the different versions of the maps (current and discarded).

  • Gentry RR, Froehlich HE, Grimm D, Kareiva P, Parke M, Rust M, Gaines SD, Halpern BS (2017) Mapping the global potential for marine aquaculture Nature Ecology & Evolution 1: 1317–1324 DOI:10.1038/s41559-017-0257-9
  • Harris PT, Macmillan-Lawler M, Rupp J, Baker EK (2014) Geomorphology of the oceans. Marine Geology 352: 4-24. 10.1016/j.margeo.2014.01.011
  • Spalding MD, Fox HE, Allen GR, Davidson N, Ferdaña ZA, Finlayson M, Halpern BS, Jorge MA, Lombana A, Lourie SA, Martin KD, McManus E, Molnar J, Recchia CA, Robertson J (2007) Marine ecoregions of the world: a bioregionalization of coastal and shelf areas. Bioscience 57: 573–583. DOI:10.1641/B570707

Footnotes

  1. This is the current version available at official site.↩︎