Risks and Opportunities for Sustainable Aquaculture (ROSA)

悬浮饲养的双壳贝类水产养殖业(即贻贝、牡蛎、贝类、文蛤、扇贝)是所有食品生产部门中增长最快的部门之一，对英国经济的直接贡献超过5亿英磅，具有更大的乘数效应，所有这些都预计将在未来十年大幅增长。尽管有这些贡献，但我们缺乏一个明确的国家路线图，说明如何使这一部门的增长和整合与目前在沿海地区开展的各种活动相结合。水产养殖对海洋环境既有积极影响，也有消极影响。特别是，对某一地区的任何过度开发都可能对商业生产力和生态系统健康产生严重影响。因此，英国的水产养殖作业必须遵守严格的控制，包括环境影响评估。ROSA的目标是制定可持续发展的管理战略，平衡潜在利益(例如，改善水质、减轻生物多样性丧失、经济活动)和风险(例如，农场选址和种子采集造成的栖息地丧失)。这些知识对于该行业的成功推广、社会接受和发展至关重要。成功的水产养殖的一个关键因素是养殖物种的适宜性。这取决于许多因素，包括增长率、生产成本、市场价格、地点位置和抗病能力。评估这些问题很复杂，因为贝类对温度、盐度、食物可获得性和食物组成的波动非常敏感，而这些波动经常发生在大多数水产养殖发生的近岸环境中。这些反应不仅影响贝类种群的增长，还影响水产养殖所在的每个宿主生态系统的能力。随着环境动态的变化，例如由于气候变化，水产养殖的风险和机会几乎肯定会发生变化。因此，养殖的物种和相关的养殖做法可能也必须改变。因此，我们必须考虑环境变化的潜在风险和好处；应对诸如气温升高、暴风雨、暴露在风浪中以及有害藻类大量繁殖事件的频率等直接影响。确定在当地和区域范围内尽量减少影响的地点和文化做法也很重要。只有通过模拟悬浮饲养的贝类如何与生态系统过程相互作用，才能现实地评估养殖的环境影响和能力。我们建议代表英国水产养殖业在定制和便携式桌面模型工具中实现这种建模。这将利用现有的最佳科学和工具，实现这一综合办法的潜力，在根据用户要求量身定制的地理信息系统决策支持平台内解决时间和空间差异。这将首次在从单个农场到区域水域的范围内，预测栖息地适宜性和养殖实践之间的相互关系可能产生的风险。为确保直接应用相关性，将与水产养殖业及其监管机构直接协商制定该工具。

The aquaculture of suspension-feeding bivalve shellfish (i.e. mussels, oysters, cockles, clams, scallops) is among the fastest-growing of all food-producing sectors, making a direct contribution of more than £500 million to the UK economy , with much greater multiplier effects, all projected to grow significantly in the coming decade. Despite these contributions, we lack a clear national roadmap that describes how to optimise the growth and integration of this sector with diverse activities now taking place in the coastal zone. Aquaculture may have both positive and negative impacts on the marine environment. In particular any overexploitation of an area may have severe effects on commercial productivity and ecosystem health. Consequently UK aquaculture operations are required to conform to strict controls including an environmental impact assessment. The goal of ROSA is to develop management strategies which will allow sustainable development, balancing the potential benefits (e.g. improved water quality, mitigation of biodiversity loss, economic activity) with the risks (e.g. loss of habitat due to both siting of farms and seed collection). Such knowledge is vital for successful promotion, societal acceptance and development of the industry.A key factor for successful aquaculture is the suitability of farmed species. This depends upon a number of factors including growth rate, cost of production, market price, site location and resistance to disease. Assessing these issues is complicated, because shellfish are highly responsive to fluctuations in temperature, salinity, food availability and food composition, as frequently occur in near-shore environments where most aquaculture takes place. These responses not only affect shellfish population growth, but also the capacity of each host ecosystem within which aquaculture is situated. As environmental dynamics alter, for example due to climate change, the risks and opportunities for aquaculture are almost certain to change. As a result, the species farmed and associated culture practice may also have to change. Consequently, we must consider the potential risks and benefits of environmental change; addressing direct impacts such as increasing temperature, storminess, exposure to wind and waves, plus frequency of harmful algal bloom events. It is also important to identify locations and culture practices that minimise impacts at local and regional scales. Only by modelling how suspension-feeding shellfish interact with ecosystem processes, can environmental impacts of and capacities for culture be realistically assessed. We propose to enable such modelling within a bespoke and portable desktop-based model tool on behalf of the UK aquaculture sector. This will draw upon the best available science and tools, realising the potential of this integrated approach to resolve temporal and spatial variations within a GIS decision support platform tailored according to user requirements. For the first time, at scales ranging from individual farms to regional waters, this will enable the projection of likely risks resulting from interrelations between habitat suitability and culture practise. To ensure immediate applied relevance, the tool will be developed in direct consultation with the aquaculture industry and its regulators.