Integrated multi-Trophic Aquaculture in ponds: what environmental gain? An LCA point of view

International audienceAquaculture faces a double challenge produce more to sustain growing demand for aquatic products and respect the environment. For several years, Integrated MultiTrophic Aquaculture (IMTA) has gained worldwide attention. IMTA is based on integrated cultivation of aquatic organisms from different but complementary trophic levels. The objective of this study was to assess environmental performances of pond-IMTA systems based on freshwater polyculture experiments in earthen ponds conducted in Romania, France and Indonesia that explored different ways to combine fish and plants. In each experiment, the IMTA system was compared to a conventional or traditional system for the country (carp polyculture in Romania, intensive polyculture in France and gourami monoculture in Indonesia). Environmental impacts of IMTA systems differed among case studies. In Romania, environmental impacts also differed between years: IMTA system had higher impacts than the traditional one in 2016 but has lower impacts in 2017. In France, conventional system had lower cumulative energy demand, eutrophication and NPPU than semi-intensive and IMTA system, the latter had the highest values of these impacts. However, for climate change the conventional system has higher impact than IMTA and semi-intensive system. In Indonesia, IMTA system had lower impacts than the tradional one. The environmental impacts estimated in this study illustrate the variability in the responses of IMTA systems. Impacts of agricultural systems depend on system productivity and the amounts of inputs embodied in the system. IMTA is expected to provide improvements such as a decrease in input use such as feed, increase in fish yields, and/or decrease in emissions per unit mass of fish produced. Depending on the practices, increasing the number of species or their organization through IMTA practices can decrease environmental impacts, especially local impacts such as eutrophication, compared to classic practices. Production and use of fish feed is one of the main causes of environmental impacts. Based on our results, IMTA practices can improve resource use and decrease the overall impact of aquaculture. Any increase in inputs used to improve nutrient recycling must also increase productivity to ensure a decrease in impacts per unit mass of fish. Certain impact categories that can describe consequences of IMTA systems more completely are lacking, especially those related to diversity, particularly biodiversity

Smart Academic and Professional Education

The evolution of technology brings closer the endless possibilities of education, allowing a human to learn something new anywhere and anytime. With the crisis created by the pandemic situation for the last two years, new ways of education have taken form to maintain the flow of learning and qualification; thus, the term “distance learning” has been implemented in all types of learning, from primary education all the way to tertiary education. This paper covers the image of tertiary education, mostly at the level of universities. Many changes took form at this level, such as developing new ways for the distance learning implementation by creating new programs dedicated for this new method of education. We will present to you how these changes took form and how they can evolve with the help of various technologies such as Blockchain and XR, and other strategic learning methods such as Massive Open Online Courses (MOOCs) and gamification. Universities start to create new programs based on their unique crypto coin, which help students pay for their studies, such as articles, new disciplines, and exchange programs. The gamification of these programs raises the interactivity that students have during class hours, thus motivating them and creating an optimal curve of learning, combined with the implementation of XR technology

Smart Academic and Professional Education

The evolution of technology brings closer the endless possibilities of education, allowing a human to learn something new anywhere and anytime. With the crisis created by the pandemic situation for the last two years, new ways of education have taken form to maintain the flow of learning and qualification; thus, the term “distance learning” has been implemented in all types of learning, from primary education all the way to tertiary education. This paper covers the image of tertiary education, mostly at the level of universities. Many changes took form at this level, such as developing new ways for the distance learning implementation by creating new programs dedicated for this new method of education. We will present to you how these changes took form and how they can evolve with the help of various technologies such as Blockchain and XR, and other strategic learning methods such as Massive Open Online Courses (MOOCs) and gamification. Universities start to create new programs based on their unique crypto coin, which help students pay for their studies, such as articles, new disciplines, and exchange programs. The gamification of these programs raises the interactivity that students have during class hours, thus motivating them and creating an optimal curve of learning, combined with the implementation of XR technology

AQUACULTURE MULTI-TROPHIQUE INTÉGRÉE Perspectives pour une aquaculture plus durable: Une nécessité pour répondre à la demande en produits aquatiques

Brochure de diffusion des résultats du projet ERANET-COFASP IMTA-EffectThe objective of the IMTA-Effect project, sup¬ported by EU ERANET-COFASP, was to provide new knowledge to sustain development of IMTA using experimental and modeling approaches. Seawater ponds (fish + filter feeders + depo¬sit feeders or macroalgae) were studied by IPMA in Portugal and HCMR in Greece. Rice-fi¬sh culture was studied by ISEM in Madagascar, and freshwater ponds in semi-separate systems for carp polyculture were studied by UDJG and Romfish in Romania, and for Azolla-Gourami in Indonesia. A compartmented IMTA that added planted lagoons to fish polyculture in freshwa¬ter ponds was studied by INRAE in France. Fi¬nally, RAS were studied by separating each spe¬cies into specific tanks by AUA in Greece and by ISEM (fish and macroalgae) and Ifremer (marine fish, phytoplankton, oysters, and ragworms) in France. The case studies showed that IMTA’s adapted management of interactions among species of different trophic groups improved the aqua¬culture system. Compared to a reference fish monoculture, the overall productivity of the sys¬tems can increase due to the production of other products or services. The efficiency of delivering feed to fish increases overall by recycling in the system loop, which decreases the environmental impacts. IMTA also diversifies aquatic products, which can increase the robustness of aquatic farms. We demonstrated the key role of prima¬ry producers (plants, micro- and macroalgae) as the engine of nutrient recycling. One advance of the IMTA-Effect project was made in system modeling. We characterized the energy distribu¬tion (DEB) of ragworms and modeled the food web structure in pond systems using Ecopath with Ecosim, combined with the use of C and N isotopes, which trace the fate of nutrients in the food web. The IMTA-Effect project was an op¬portunity to strengthen the knowledge and dif¬fusion of new practices in the aquaculture sector, thus opening new perspectives for development