Comparing Life Cycle Assessment (LCA) of Salmonid Aquaculture Production Systems: Status and Perspectives
Aquaculture is the fastest growing food sector worldwide, mostly driven by a steadily increasing protein demand. In response to growing ecological concerns, life cycle assessment (LCA) emerged as a key environmental tool to measure the impacts of various production systems, including aquaculture. In...
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doaj-862e233f3e564888a798d0f63cce20c52020-11-24T21:30:57ZengMDPI AGSustainability2071-10502019-04-01119251710.3390/su11092517su11092517Comparing Life Cycle Assessment (LCA) of Salmonid Aquaculture Production Systems: Status and PerspectivesGaspard Philis0Friederike Ziegler1Lars Christian Gansel2Mona Dverdal Jansen3Erik Olav Gracey4Anne Stene5Department of Biological Sciences, Norwegian University of Science and Technology, Larsgårdsvegen 2, 6009 Ålesund, NorwayAgrifood and Bioscience, RISE Research Institutes of Sweden, Post box 5401, 40229 Gothenburg, SwedenDepartment of Biological Sciences, Norwegian University of Science and Technology, Larsgårdsvegen 2, 6009 Ålesund, NorwaySection for Epidemiology, Norwegian Veterinary Institute, Pb 750 Sentrum, 0106 Oslo, NorwaySustainability Department, BioMar Group, Havnegata 9, 7010 Trondheim, NorwayDepartment of Biological Sciences, Norwegian University of Science and Technology, Larsgårdsvegen 2, 6009 Ålesund, NorwayAquaculture is the fastest growing food sector worldwide, mostly driven by a steadily increasing protein demand. In response to growing ecological concerns, life cycle assessment (LCA) emerged as a key environmental tool to measure the impacts of various production systems, including aquaculture. In this review, we focused on farmed salmonids to perform an in-depth analysis, investigating methodologies and comparing results of LCA studies of this finfish family in relation to species and production technologies. Identifying the environmental strengths and weaknesses of salmonid production technologies is central to ensure that industrial actors and policymakers make informed choices to take the production of this important marine livestock to a more sustainable path. Three critical aspects of salmonid LCAs were studied based on 24 articles and reports: (1) Methodological application, (2) construction of inventories, and (3) comparison of production technologies across studies. Our first assessment provides an overview and compares important methodological choices. The second analysis maps the main foreground and background data sources, as well as the state of process inclusion and exclusion. In the third section, a first attempt to compare life cycle impact assessment (LCIA) and feed conversion ratio (FCR) data across production technologies was conducted using a single factor statistical protocol. Overall, findings suggested a lack of methodological completeness and reporting in the literature and demonstrated that inventories suffered from incomplete description and partial disclosure. Our attempt to compare LCA results across studies was challenging due to confounding factors and poor data availability, but useful as a first step in highlighting the importance of production technology for salmonids. In groups where the data was robust enough for statistical comparison, both differences and mean equalities were identified, allowing ranking of technology clusters based on their average scores. We statistically demonstrated that sea-based systems outperform land-based technology in terms of energy demand and that sea-based systems have a generally higher FCR than land-based ones. Cross-study analytics also strongly suggest that open systems generate on average more eutrophying emissions than closed designs. We further discuss how to overcome bottlenecks currently hampering such LCA meta-analysis. Arguments are made in favor of further developing cross-study LCA analysis, particularly by increasing the number of salmonid LCA available (to improve sample sizes) and by reforming in-depth LCA practices to enable full reproducibility and greater access to inventory data.https://www.mdpi.com/2071-1050/11/9/2517LCAlife cycle assessmentenvironmental impactsaquaculturesalmontroutproduction systemsreviewcross-study comparison |
collection |
DOAJ |
language |
English |
format |
Article |
sources |
DOAJ |
author |
Gaspard Philis Friederike Ziegler Lars Christian Gansel Mona Dverdal Jansen Erik Olav Gracey Anne Stene |
spellingShingle |
Gaspard Philis Friederike Ziegler Lars Christian Gansel Mona Dverdal Jansen Erik Olav Gracey Anne Stene Comparing Life Cycle Assessment (LCA) of Salmonid Aquaculture Production Systems: Status and Perspectives Sustainability LCA life cycle assessment environmental impacts aquaculture salmon trout production systems review cross-study comparison |
author_facet |
Gaspard Philis Friederike Ziegler Lars Christian Gansel Mona Dverdal Jansen Erik Olav Gracey Anne Stene |
author_sort |
Gaspard Philis |
title |
Comparing Life Cycle Assessment (LCA) of Salmonid Aquaculture Production Systems: Status and Perspectives |
title_short |
Comparing Life Cycle Assessment (LCA) of Salmonid Aquaculture Production Systems: Status and Perspectives |
title_full |
Comparing Life Cycle Assessment (LCA) of Salmonid Aquaculture Production Systems: Status and Perspectives |
title_fullStr |
Comparing Life Cycle Assessment (LCA) of Salmonid Aquaculture Production Systems: Status and Perspectives |
title_full_unstemmed |
Comparing Life Cycle Assessment (LCA) of Salmonid Aquaculture Production Systems: Status and Perspectives |
title_sort |
comparing life cycle assessment (lca) of salmonid aquaculture production systems: status and perspectives |
publisher |
MDPI AG |
series |
Sustainability |
issn |
2071-1050 |
publishDate |
2019-04-01 |
description |
Aquaculture is the fastest growing food sector worldwide, mostly driven by a steadily increasing protein demand. In response to growing ecological concerns, life cycle assessment (LCA) emerged as a key environmental tool to measure the impacts of various production systems, including aquaculture. In this review, we focused on farmed salmonids to perform an in-depth analysis, investigating methodologies and comparing results of LCA studies of this finfish family in relation to species and production technologies. Identifying the environmental strengths and weaknesses of salmonid production technologies is central to ensure that industrial actors and policymakers make informed choices to take the production of this important marine livestock to a more sustainable path. Three critical aspects of salmonid LCAs were studied based on 24 articles and reports: (1) Methodological application, (2) construction of inventories, and (3) comparison of production technologies across studies. Our first assessment provides an overview and compares important methodological choices. The second analysis maps the main foreground and background data sources, as well as the state of process inclusion and exclusion. In the third section, a first attempt to compare life cycle impact assessment (LCIA) and feed conversion ratio (FCR) data across production technologies was conducted using a single factor statistical protocol. Overall, findings suggested a lack of methodological completeness and reporting in the literature and demonstrated that inventories suffered from incomplete description and partial disclosure. Our attempt to compare LCA results across studies was challenging due to confounding factors and poor data availability, but useful as a first step in highlighting the importance of production technology for salmonids. In groups where the data was robust enough for statistical comparison, both differences and mean equalities were identified, allowing ranking of technology clusters based on their average scores. We statistically demonstrated that sea-based systems outperform land-based technology in terms of energy demand and that sea-based systems have a generally higher FCR than land-based ones. Cross-study analytics also strongly suggest that open systems generate on average more eutrophying emissions than closed designs. We further discuss how to overcome bottlenecks currently hampering such LCA meta-analysis. Arguments are made in favor of further developing cross-study LCA analysis, particularly by increasing the number of salmonid LCA available (to improve sample sizes) and by reforming in-depth LCA practices to enable full reproducibility and greater access to inventory data. |
topic |
LCA life cycle assessment environmental impacts aquaculture salmon trout production systems review cross-study comparison |
url |
https://www.mdpi.com/2071-1050/11/9/2517 |
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