Mitigation Culture of Mussels: Production and Ecological Impacts

• Main Author: Taylor, Daniel
• Format: Book
• Language: English
• Published: DTU Aqua 2020
• Subjects: /dk/atira/pure/sustainabledevelopmentgoals/life_below_water; SDG 14 - Life Below Water; Ocean acidification
• Online Access: https://orbit.dtu.dk/en/publications/2b43470a-fa97-4b19-ab2b-b4b6fb1747de; https://backend.orbit.dtu.dk/ws/files/240710593/Daniel_Taylor_thesis.pdf

The ecological footprint of modern industrialized society now encompasses the entire biosphere. Interrelated themes of global warming, biodiversity loss, ocean acidification, and eutrophication are defining features of the Anthropocene. The nutritive enrichment of our coastal seas and estuaries has been widely recognized as a core environmental issue that has taken shape in national and international regulation. Despite the improvements in nutrient load reductions to some coastal waters, ensuing ecological rebounding or otherwise expected improvements have not been realized. In light of internal loading and the manifold negative interactions, there is increasing recognition that multifaceted intervention in coastal ecology is required to rectify the deterioration of coastal ecosystems. One such intervention is leveraging the intense particle filtration capacity of marine bivalves, where in the western Baltic Sea, the blue mussel ( Mytilus edulis ) cultivated for the primary purpose of mitigating eutrophication can extract large quantities of nutrients from coastal waters while providing additional ecosystem services. Several studies have examined bivalve farming practices and their quantitative effects on the environment in relation to seston immobilization and nutrient dynamics. While sharing some features of conventional shellfish production, mitigation mussel cultivation shifts cultivation objectives from product quality to total nutrient content at minimal costs. Accordingly, modified or new modes of production require optimization procedures in terms of cultivation methods and spatial prioritization. Eutrophic environments are highly dynamic and the interactions of marine mitigation mechanisms with the environment require careful investigation to assess the scale of ecosystem services rendered. Suspended mussel farms function as large-scale reactors for organic particles, transforming a portion into somatic mass, another into particulate organic wastes deposited on the sea floor, and the remaining as ...