Role of life cycle assessment in sustainable aquaculture

As an alternative food source to wild fisheries, aquaculture shows a great potential to help meet the growing demand for seafood and animal protein. The expansion of aquaculture has been achieved partly by system intensification, which has drawn vast criticisms of aquaculture for its environmental,...

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Bibliographic Details
Published in:Reviews in Aquaculture
Main Authors: Cao, Ling, Diana, James S., Keoleian, Gregory A.
Other Authors: Civil and Environmental Engineering, University of Michigan, Ann Arbor, MI, USA, School of Natural Resources and Environment, University of Michigan, Ann Arbor, MI, USA
Format: Article in Journal/Newspaper
Language:unknown
Published: Blackwell Publishing Ltd 2013
Subjects:
Environmental Impact
Life Cycle Assessment
Sustainability
Biodiversity
Certification
Aquaculture
Atmospheric and Oceanic Sciences
Science
Boreal Environment Research
Online Access:https://hdl.handle.net/2027.42/98772
https://doi.org/10.1111/j.1753-5131.2012.01080.x
id ftumdeepblue:oai:deepblue.lib.umich.edu:2027.42/98772
record_format openpolar
institution Open Polar
collection University of Michigan: Deep Blue
op_collection_id ftumdeepblue
language unknown
topic Environmental Impact
Life Cycle Assessment
Sustainability
Biodiversity
Certification
Aquaculture
Atmospheric and Oceanic Sciences
Science
spellingShingle Environmental Impact
Life Cycle Assessment
Sustainability
Biodiversity
Certification
Aquaculture
Atmospheric and Oceanic Sciences
Science
Cao, Ling
Diana, James S.
Keoleian, Gregory A.
Role of life cycle assessment in sustainable aquaculture
topic_facet Environmental Impact
Life Cycle Assessment
Sustainability
Biodiversity
Certification
Aquaculture
Atmospheric and Oceanic Sciences
Science
description As an alternative food source to wild fisheries, aquaculture shows a great potential to help meet the growing demand for seafood and animal protein. The expansion of aquaculture has been achieved partly by system intensification, which has drawn vast criticisms of aquaculture for its environmental, social and economic sustainability issues. Life cycle assessment (LCA) has become the leading tool for identifying key environmental impacts of seafood production systems. A LCA evaluates the sustainability of diverse aquaculture systems quantitatively from a cradle‐to‐grave perspective. It provides a scientific basis for analysing system improvement and the development of certification and eco‐labelling criteria. Current efforts focus on integrating local ecological and socio‐economic impacts into the LCA framework. A LCA can play an important role in informing decision makers in order to achieve more sustainable seafood production and consumption. This article reviews recent applications of LCA in aquaculture, compares the environmental performance of different aquaculture production systems, explores the potential of including biodiversity issues into LCA analysis and examines the potential of LCA in setting criteria for certification and eco‐labelling. Peer Reviewed http://deepblue.lib.umich.edu/bitstream/2027.42/98772/1/raq1080.pdf
author2 Civil and Environmental Engineering, University of Michigan, Ann Arbor, MI, USA
School of Natural Resources and Environment, University of Michigan, Ann Arbor, MI, USA
format Article in Journal/Newspaper
author Cao, Ling
Diana, James S.
Keoleian, Gregory A.
author_facet Cao, Ling
Diana, James S.
Keoleian, Gregory A.
author_sort Cao, Ling
title Role of life cycle assessment in sustainable aquaculture
title_short Role of life cycle assessment in sustainable aquaculture
title_full Role of life cycle assessment in sustainable aquaculture
title_fullStr Role of life cycle assessment in sustainable aquaculture
title_full_unstemmed Role of life cycle assessment in sustainable aquaculture
title_sort role of life cycle assessment in sustainable aquaculture
publisher Blackwell Publishing Ltd
publishDate 2013
url https://hdl.handle.net/2027.42/98772
https://doi.org/10.1111/j.1753-5131.2012.01080.x
genre Boreal Environment Research
genre_facet Boreal Environment Research
op_relation Cao, Ling; Diana, James S.; Keoleian, Gregory A. (2013). "Role of life cycle assessment in sustainable aquaculture." Reviews in Aquaculture 5(2): 61-71. <http://hdl.handle.net/2027.42/98772>
1753-5123
1753-5131
https://hdl.handle.net/2027.42/98772
doi:10.1111/j.1753-5131.2012.01080.x
Reviews in Aquaculture
d’Orbcastel ER, Blancheton JP, Aubin J ( 2009 ) Towards environmentally sustainable aquaculture: comparison between two trout farming systems using life cycle assessment. Aquacultural Engineering 40: 113 – 119.
ISO ( 1998 ) Environmental Management – Life Cycle Assessment – Goal and Scope Definition and Inventory Analysis. International Organization for Standardization 14041, Geneva, Switzerland. http://www.iso.org.
ISO ( 2000 ) Environmental Labels and Declarations – General Principles. International Organization for Standardization 14020, Geneva, Switzerland. http://www.iso.org.
Jeanneret P ( 2008 ) A new LCIA method for assessing impacts of agricultural activities on biodiversity. In: Nemecek T, Gaillard G (eds) Proceedings of the 6th International Conference on LCA in the Agri‐Food Sector – Towards a Sustainable Management of the Food Chain, pp. 34 – 39; 12–14 Nov 2008, Zurich, Switzerland.
Kruse SA, Flysjö A, Kasperczyk N, Scholz AJ ( 2009 ) Socioeconomic indicators as a complement to life cycle assessment – an application to salmon production systems. International Journal of Life Cycle Assessment 14: 8 – 18.
MA ( 2005 ) Millennium Ecosystem Assessment. http://www.millenniumassessment.org/en/index. Accessed on 2 August 2011.
Mente E, Karalazos V, Karapanagiotidis IT, Pita C ( 2011 ) Nutrition in organic aquaculture: an inquiry and a discourse. Aquaculture Nutrition 17: 798 – 817.
Mungkong R, Gheewala SH ( 2007 ) Use of life cycle assessment (LCA) to compare the environmental impacts of aquaculture and agri‐food products. In: Bartley DM, Brugère C, Soto D, Gerber P, Harvey B (eds) Comparative Assessment of the Environmental Costs of Aquaculture and Other Food Production Sectors: Methods for Meaningful Comparisons. FAO Fisheries Proceedings. No. 10, pp. 87 – 96, FAO, Rome.
Mungkung RT ( 2005 ) Shrimp aquaculture in Thailand: application of life cycle assessment to support sustainable development. PhD thesis. Center for Environmental Strategy, School of Engineering, University of Surrey, Surrey, UK.
Mungkung RT, Udo De Haes HA, Clift R ( 2006 ) Potentials and limitations of life cycle assessment in setting ecolabelling criteria: a case study of Thai shrimp aquaculture product. International Journal of Life Cycle Assessment 11: 55 – 59.
Owens J ( 1996 ) LCA impact assessment categories. The International Journal of Life Cycle Assessment 1: 151 – 158.
Pauly D, Christensen V, Guénette S, Pitcher TJ, Sumaila UR, Walters CJ et al. ( 2002 ) Towards sustainability in world fisheries. Nature 418: 689 – 695.
Pelletier N, Tyedmers P ( 2007 ) Feeding farmed salmon: is organic better? Aquaculture 272: 399 – 416.
Pelletier N, Tyedmers P ( 2008 ) Life cycle considerations for improving sustainability assessments in seafood awareness campaigns. Environmental Management 42: 918 – 931.
Pelletier N, Tyedmers P ( 2010 ) Life cycle assessment of frozen tilapia fillets from Indonesian lake‐based and pond‐based intensive aquaculture systems. Journal of Industrial Ecology 14: 467 – 481.
Pelletier NL, Ayer NW, Tyedmers PH, Kruse SA, Flysjo A, Robillard G et al. ( 2007 ) Impact categories for life cycle assessment research of seafood production systems: review and prospectus. International Journal of Life Cycle Assessment 12: 414 – 421.
Pelletier N, Tyedmers P, Sonesson U, Scholz A, Ziegler F, Flysjo A et al. ( 2009 ) Not all salmon are created equal: life cycle assessment (LCA) of global salmon farming systems. Environmental Science and Technology 43: 8730 – 8736.
PRé ( 2008 ) SimaPro 7.1. http://www.pre.nl/.
Roy P, Nei D, Orikasa T, Xu Q, Okadome H, Nakamura N et al. ( 2009 ) A review of life cycle assessment (LCA) on some food products. Journal of Food Engineering 90: 1 – 10.
Schmidt JH ( 2008 ) Development of LCIA characterisation factors for land use impacts on biodiversity. Journal of Cleaner Production 16: 1929 – 1942.
Sun WT ( 2009 ) Life cycle assessment of indoor recirculating shrimp aquaculture system. Master’s thesis. School of Natural Resources and Environment, University of Michigan, Ann Arbor, MI.
Thrane ( 2004 ) Environmental impacts from Danish fish products – hot spots and environmental policies. PhD Dissertation. Department of Development and Planning, Aalborg University, Denmark.
UNEP/SETAC ( 2009 ) Guidelines for Social Life Cycle Assessment of Products. UNEP/SETAC Life Cycle Initiative, UNEP. http://www.unep.fr/shared/publications/pdf/DTIx1164xPA‐guidelines_sLCA.pdf.
de Vries M, de Boer IJM ( 2010 ) Comparing environmental impacts for livestock products: a review of life cycle assessments. Livestock Science 128: 1 – 11.
Williams AG, Audsley E, Sandars DL ( 2006 ) Determining the environmental burdens and resource use in the production of agricultural and horticultural commodities. Main Report Defra Research Project ISO205. Cranfield University and Defra, Bedford.
Ziegler F, Nilsson P, Mattsson B, Walther Y ( 2003 ) Life cycle assessment of frozen cod fillets including fishery‐specific environmental impacts. International Journal of Life Cycle Assessment 8: 39 – 47.
Alkemade R, Van Oorschot M, Miles L, Nellemann C, Bakkenes M, Ten Brink B ( 2009 ) GLOBIO3: a framework to investigate options for reducing global terrestrial biodiversity loss. Ecosystems 12: 374 – 390.
Aubin J, Papatryphon E, van der Werf HMG, Chatzifotis S ( 2009 ) Assessment of the environmental impact of carnivorous finfish production systems using life cycle assessment. Journal of Cleaner Production 17: 354 – 361.
Ayer NW, Tyedmers PH ( 2009 ) Assessing alternative aquaculture technologies: life cycle assessment of salmonid culture systems in Canada. Journal of Cleaner Production 17: 362 – 373.
Bartley DM, Brugère C, Soto D, Gerber P, Harvey B (eds) ( 2007 ) Comparative assessment of the environmental costs of aquaculture and other food production sectors: methods for meaningful comparisons. FAO/WFT Expert Workshop, 24–28 April 2006, Vancouver, Canada. FAO Fisheries Proceedings. No. 10. FAO, Rome.
Baruthio A, Aubin J, Mungkung R, Lazard J, Van der Werf HM ( 2009 ) Environmental assessment of Filipino fish/prawn polyculture using life cycle assessment. In: Nemecek T, Gaillard G (eds) Proceedings of the 6th International Conference on LCA in the Agri‐Food Sector – Towards a Sustainable Management of the Food Chain. Agroscope Reckenholz‐Tänikon Research Station ART, Zurich, Switzerland.
Bosma R, Hanh CTT, Potting J, Dung PTA ( 2009 ) Environmental Impact Assessment of the Pangasius Sector in the Mekong Delta. Wageningen University, Wageningen.
Bosma R, Anh P, Potting J ( 2011 ) Life cycle assessment of intensive striped catfish farming in the Mekong Delta for screening hotspots as input to environmental policy and research agenda. International Journal of Life Cycle Assessment 16: 903 – 915.
Bostock J, McAndrew B, Richards R, Jauncey K, Telfer T, Lorenzen K et al. ( 2010 ) Aquaculture: global status and trends. Philosophical Transactions of the Royal Society B: Biological Sciences 365: 2897 – 2912.
van den Burg SWK, Taal C, de Boer IJM, Bakker T, Viets TC ( 2011 ) Environmental Performance of Wild‐Caught North Sea Whitefish: A Comparison with Aquaculture and Animal Husbandry Using LCA. http://www.lei.dlo.nl/publicaties/PDF/2011/2011‐090.pdf.
Cao L, Diana JS, Keoleian GA, Lai Q ( 2011 ) Life cycle assessment of Chinese shrimp farming systems targeted for export and domestic sales. Environmental Science and Technology 45: 6531 – 6538.
Curran M, De Baan L, De Schryver AM, Van Zelm R, Hellweg S, Koellner T et al. ( 2011 ) Toward meaningful end points of biodiversity in life cycle assessment. Environmental Science and Technology 45: 70 – 79.
Deng NS, Wang XB ( 2003 ) Life Cycle Assessment. Chemical Industry Press, China.
Diana JS ( 2009 ) Aquaculture production and biodiversity conservation. BioScience 59: 27 – 38.
Ellingsen H, Aanondsen SA ( 2006 ) Environmental impacts of wild caught cod and farmed salmon – a comparison with chicken. International Journal of Life Cycle Assessment 11: 60 – 65.
Ellingsen H, Olaussen JO, Utne IB ( 2009 ) Environmental analysis of the Norwegian fishery and aquaculture industry – a preliminary study focusing on farmed salmon. Marine Policy 33: 479 – 488.
EU ( 2007 ) Organic Production and Labelling of Organic Products and Repealing Regulation. Official Journal of the European Union, Luxembourg.
FAO ( 2010 ) Fishstat Fishery Statistical Collections: Aquaculture Production. Food and Agriculture Organization of the United Nations, Rome, Italy. http://www.fao.org/fishery/statistics/software/fishstat/en. Accessed on 1 August 2011.
Grönroos J, Seppälä J, Silvenius F, Mäkinen T ( 2006 ) Life cycle assessment of Finnish cultivated rainbow trout. Boreal Environment Research 11: 401 – 414.
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spelling ftumdeepblue:oai:deepblue.lib.umich.edu:2027.42/98772 2023-08-20T04:05:40+02:00 Role of life cycle assessment in sustainable aquaculture Cao, Ling Diana, James S. Keoleian, Gregory A. Civil and Environmental Engineering, University of Michigan, Ann Arbor, MI, USA School of Natural Resources and Environment, University of Michigan, Ann Arbor, MI, USA 2013-06 application/pdf https://hdl.handle.net/2027.42/98772 https://doi.org/10.1111/j.1753-5131.2012.01080.x unknown Blackwell Publishing Ltd Wiley Periodicals, Inc. Cao, Ling; Diana, James S.; Keoleian, Gregory A. (2013). "Role of life cycle assessment in sustainable aquaculture." Reviews in Aquaculture 5(2): 61-71. <http://hdl.handle.net/2027.42/98772> 1753-5123 1753-5131 https://hdl.handle.net/2027.42/98772 doi:10.1111/j.1753-5131.2012.01080.x Reviews in Aquaculture d’Orbcastel ER, Blancheton JP, Aubin J ( 2009 ) Towards environmentally sustainable aquaculture: comparison between two trout farming systems using life cycle assessment. Aquacultural Engineering 40: 113 – 119. ISO ( 1998 ) Environmental Management – Life Cycle Assessment – Goal and Scope Definition and Inventory Analysis. International Organization for Standardization 14041, Geneva, Switzerland. http://www.iso.org. ISO ( 2000 ) Environmental Labels and Declarations – General Principles. International Organization for Standardization 14020, Geneva, Switzerland. http://www.iso.org. Jeanneret P ( 2008 ) A new LCIA method for assessing impacts of agricultural activities on biodiversity. In: Nemecek T, Gaillard G (eds) Proceedings of the 6th International Conference on LCA in the Agri‐Food Sector – Towards a Sustainable Management of the Food Chain, pp. 34 – 39; 12–14 Nov 2008, Zurich, Switzerland. Kruse SA, Flysjö A, Kasperczyk N, Scholz AJ ( 2009 ) Socioeconomic indicators as a complement to life cycle assessment – an application to salmon production systems. International Journal of Life Cycle Assessment 14: 8 – 18. MA ( 2005 ) Millennium Ecosystem Assessment. http://www.millenniumassessment.org/en/index. Accessed on 2 August 2011. Mente E, Karalazos V, Karapanagiotidis IT, Pita C ( 2011 ) Nutrition in organic aquaculture: an inquiry and a discourse. Aquaculture Nutrition 17: 798 – 817. Mungkong R, Gheewala SH ( 2007 ) Use of life cycle assessment (LCA) to compare the environmental impacts of aquaculture and agri‐food products. In: Bartley DM, Brugère C, Soto D, Gerber P, Harvey B (eds) Comparative Assessment of the Environmental Costs of Aquaculture and Other Food Production Sectors: Methods for Meaningful Comparisons. FAO Fisheries Proceedings. No. 10, pp. 87 – 96, FAO, Rome. Mungkung RT ( 2005 ) Shrimp aquaculture in Thailand: application of life cycle assessment to support sustainable development. PhD thesis. Center for Environmental Strategy, School of Engineering, University of Surrey, Surrey, UK. Mungkung RT, Udo De Haes HA, Clift R ( 2006 ) Potentials and limitations of life cycle assessment in setting ecolabelling criteria: a case study of Thai shrimp aquaculture product. International Journal of Life Cycle Assessment 11: 55 – 59. Owens J ( 1996 ) LCA impact assessment categories. The International Journal of Life Cycle Assessment 1: 151 – 158. Pauly D, Christensen V, Guénette S, Pitcher TJ, Sumaila UR, Walters CJ et al. ( 2002 ) Towards sustainability in world fisheries. Nature 418: 689 – 695. Pelletier N, Tyedmers P ( 2007 ) Feeding farmed salmon: is organic better? Aquaculture 272: 399 – 416. Pelletier N, Tyedmers P ( 2008 ) Life cycle considerations for improving sustainability assessments in seafood awareness campaigns. Environmental Management 42: 918 – 931. Pelletier N, Tyedmers P ( 2010 ) Life cycle assessment of frozen tilapia fillets from Indonesian lake‐based and pond‐based intensive aquaculture systems. Journal of Industrial Ecology 14: 467 – 481. Pelletier NL, Ayer NW, Tyedmers PH, Kruse SA, Flysjo A, Robillard G et al. ( 2007 ) Impact categories for life cycle assessment research of seafood production systems: review and prospectus. International Journal of Life Cycle Assessment 12: 414 – 421. Pelletier N, Tyedmers P, Sonesson U, Scholz A, Ziegler F, Flysjo A et al. ( 2009 ) Not all salmon are created equal: life cycle assessment (LCA) of global salmon farming systems. Environmental Science and Technology 43: 8730 – 8736. PRé ( 2008 ) SimaPro 7.1. http://www.pre.nl/. Roy P, Nei D, Orikasa T, Xu Q, Okadome H, Nakamura N et al. ( 2009 ) A review of life cycle assessment (LCA) on some food products. Journal of Food Engineering 90: 1 – 10. Schmidt JH ( 2008 ) Development of LCIA characterisation factors for land use impacts on biodiversity. Journal of Cleaner Production 16: 1929 – 1942. Sun WT ( 2009 ) Life cycle assessment of indoor recirculating shrimp aquaculture system. Master’s thesis. School of Natural Resources and Environment, University of Michigan, Ann Arbor, MI. Thrane ( 2004 ) Environmental impacts from Danish fish products – hot spots and environmental policies. PhD Dissertation. Department of Development and Planning, Aalborg University, Denmark. UNEP/SETAC ( 2009 ) Guidelines for Social Life Cycle Assessment of Products. UNEP/SETAC Life Cycle Initiative, UNEP. http://www.unep.fr/shared/publications/pdf/DTIx1164xPA‐guidelines_sLCA.pdf. de Vries M, de Boer IJM ( 2010 ) Comparing environmental impacts for livestock products: a review of life cycle assessments. Livestock Science 128: 1 – 11. Williams AG, Audsley E, Sandars DL ( 2006 ) Determining the environmental burdens and resource use in the production of agricultural and horticultural commodities. Main Report Defra Research Project ISO205. Cranfield University and Defra, Bedford. Ziegler F, Nilsson P, Mattsson B, Walther Y ( 2003 ) Life cycle assessment of frozen cod fillets including fishery‐specific environmental impacts. International Journal of Life Cycle Assessment 8: 39 – 47. Alkemade R, Van Oorschot M, Miles L, Nellemann C, Bakkenes M, Ten Brink B ( 2009 ) GLOBIO3: a framework to investigate options for reducing global terrestrial biodiversity loss. Ecosystems 12: 374 – 390. Aubin J, Papatryphon E, van der Werf HMG, Chatzifotis S ( 2009 ) Assessment of the environmental impact of carnivorous finfish production systems using life cycle assessment. Journal of Cleaner Production 17: 354 – 361. Ayer NW, Tyedmers PH ( 2009 ) Assessing alternative aquaculture technologies: life cycle assessment of salmonid culture systems in Canada. Journal of Cleaner Production 17: 362 – 373. Bartley DM, Brugère C, Soto D, Gerber P, Harvey B (eds) ( 2007 ) Comparative assessment of the environmental costs of aquaculture and other food production sectors: methods for meaningful comparisons. FAO/WFT Expert Workshop, 24–28 April 2006, Vancouver, Canada. FAO Fisheries Proceedings. No. 10. FAO, Rome. Baruthio A, Aubin J, Mungkung R, Lazard J, Van der Werf HM ( 2009 ) Environmental assessment of Filipino fish/prawn polyculture using life cycle assessment. In: Nemecek T, Gaillard G (eds) Proceedings of the 6th International Conference on LCA in the Agri‐Food Sector – Towards a Sustainable Management of the Food Chain. Agroscope Reckenholz‐Tänikon Research Station ART, Zurich, Switzerland. Bosma R, Hanh CTT, Potting J, Dung PTA ( 2009 ) Environmental Impact Assessment of the Pangasius Sector in the Mekong Delta. Wageningen University, Wageningen. Bosma R, Anh P, Potting J ( 2011 ) Life cycle assessment of intensive striped catfish farming in the Mekong Delta for screening hotspots as input to environmental policy and research agenda. International Journal of Life Cycle Assessment 16: 903 – 915. Bostock J, McAndrew B, Richards R, Jauncey K, Telfer T, Lorenzen K et al. ( 2010 ) Aquaculture: global status and trends. Philosophical Transactions of the Royal Society B: Biological Sciences 365: 2897 – 2912. van den Burg SWK, Taal C, de Boer IJM, Bakker T, Viets TC ( 2011 ) Environmental Performance of Wild‐Caught North Sea Whitefish: A Comparison with Aquaculture and Animal Husbandry Using LCA. http://www.lei.dlo.nl/publicaties/PDF/2011/2011‐090.pdf. Cao L, Diana JS, Keoleian GA, Lai Q ( 2011 ) Life cycle assessment of Chinese shrimp farming systems targeted for export and domestic sales. Environmental Science and Technology 45: 6531 – 6538. Curran M, De Baan L, De Schryver AM, Van Zelm R, Hellweg S, Koellner T et al. ( 2011 ) Toward meaningful end points of biodiversity in life cycle assessment. Environmental Science and Technology 45: 70 – 79. Deng NS, Wang XB ( 2003 ) Life Cycle Assessment. Chemical Industry Press, China. Diana JS ( 2009 ) Aquaculture production and biodiversity conservation. BioScience 59: 27 – 38. Ellingsen H, Aanondsen SA ( 2006 ) Environmental impacts of wild caught cod and farmed salmon – a comparison with chicken. International Journal of Life Cycle Assessment 11: 60 – 65. Ellingsen H, Olaussen JO, Utne IB ( 2009 ) Environmental analysis of the Norwegian fishery and aquaculture industry – a preliminary study focusing on farmed salmon. Marine Policy 33: 479 – 488. EU ( 2007 ) Organic Production and Labelling of Organic Products and Repealing Regulation. Official Journal of the European Union, Luxembourg. FAO ( 2010 ) Fishstat Fishery Statistical Collections: Aquaculture Production. Food and Agriculture Organization of the United Nations, Rome, Italy. http://www.fao.org/fishery/statistics/software/fishstat/en. Accessed on 1 August 2011. Grönroos J, Seppälä J, Silvenius F, Mäkinen T ( 2006 ) Life cycle assessment of Finnish cultivated rainbow trout. Boreal Environment Research 11: 401 – 414. IndexNoFollow Environmental Impact Life Cycle Assessment Sustainability Biodiversity Certification Aquaculture Atmospheric and Oceanic Sciences Science Article 2013 ftumdeepblue https://doi.org/10.1111/j.1753-5131.2012.01080.x 2023-07-31T21:08:30Z As an alternative food source to wild fisheries, aquaculture shows a great potential to help meet the growing demand for seafood and animal protein. The expansion of aquaculture has been achieved partly by system intensification, which has drawn vast criticisms of aquaculture for its environmental, social and economic sustainability issues. Life cycle assessment (LCA) has become the leading tool for identifying key environmental impacts of seafood production systems. A LCA evaluates the sustainability of diverse aquaculture systems quantitatively from a cradle‐to‐grave perspective. It provides a scientific basis for analysing system improvement and the development of certification and eco‐labelling criteria. Current efforts focus on integrating local ecological and socio‐economic impacts into the LCA framework. A LCA can play an important role in informing decision makers in order to achieve more sustainable seafood production and consumption. This article reviews recent applications of LCA in aquaculture, compares the environmental performance of different aquaculture production systems, explores the potential of including biodiversity issues into LCA analysis and examines the potential of LCA in setting criteria for certification and eco‐labelling. Peer Reviewed http://deepblue.lib.umich.edu/bitstream/2027.42/98772/1/raq1080.pdf Article in Journal/Newspaper Boreal Environment Research University of Michigan: Deep Blue Reviews in Aquaculture 5 2 61 71

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