Aquaponics food production systems
This book (PDF) by Springer provides the authoritative and comprehensive overview of the key aquaculture and hydroponic and other integrated systems, socio-economic and environmental aspects. Aquaponics, which combine aquaculture and vegetable food production offer alternative technology solutions for a world that is increasingly under stress through population growth, urbanisation, water shortages, land and soil degradation, environmental pollution, world hunger and climate change. The book starts with a chapter on aquaponics and its relation with the global food challenges. Further, it focuses on the key issues that need to be addressed, including the development of energy-efficient systems, achieving profitability, legislation and policy. Two articles discuss the limitations and benefits of coupled and decoupled aquaponics systems. The main advantage of coupled aquaponics is the efficient use of resources such as feed for nutrient input, phosphorous, water and energy as well as in an increase of fish welfare, while decoupled aquaponics provide for a more finely tuned regulation of the process water in each of the respective units while also allowing for better recycling of nutrients from sludge. To control the available nutrient concentration in aquaponics is challenging, therefore it is essential to better understand and control all nutrient cycles in aquaponics which is being discussed in this article. Another article discusses the urgent need to develop a ‘critical sustainability knowledge’ for aquaponics to overcome issues such as limited resources, market uncertainty, institutional resistance and high risk of failure. There are a number of allied, novel methods of food production that are aligning alongside aquaponics and also which can be merged with aquaponics to deliver food efficiently and productively, which are elaborated on in a chapter of the book.