Affiliation:
1. Laboratorio de Biologia Marina, Departamento de Zoología, Universidad de Sevilla, Sevilla, Spain
2. Instituto de investigacion y Formacion Agraria y Pesquera, El Toruño, Puerto de Santa María, Spain
3. Departament de Química “Prof. J.C. Víchez Martín”, Facultad de Ciencias Experimentales, Universidad de Huelva, Huelva, Spain
Abstract
Coastal protection, nutrient cycling, erosion control, water purification, and carbon sequestration are ecosystem services provided by salt marshes. Additionally, salt ponds offer coastal breeding and a nursery habitat for fishes and they provide abundant invertebrates, such as amphipods, which are potentially useful as a resource in aquaculture. Fishmeal and fish oil are necessary food resources to support aquaculture of carnivorous species due to their omega-3 long-chain polyunsaturated fatty acids (n-3 LC-PUFA). Currently, aquaculture depends on limited fisheries and feed with elevated n-3 LC-PUFA levels, but the development of more sustainable food sources is necessary. Amphipods appear to be a potential high quality alternative feed resource for aquaculture. Hence, a nutritional study was carried out for several main amphipod species—Microdeutopus gryllotalpa,Monocorophium acherusicum,Gammarus insensibilis,Melita palmataandCymadusa filosa—in terrestrial ponds in the South of Spain. These species showed high protein content (up to 40%), high n-3 PUFA and phospholipid levels, and high levels of phophatidylcholine (PC), phosphatidylethanolamine (PE) and triacylglycerols (TAG), the latter being significantly high forM. acherusicum.M. gryllotalpaandM. acherusicumshowed the highest proportion of lipids (19.15% and 18.35%, respectively). Isoleucine, glycine and alanine were the dominant amino acids in all species. In addition, amphipods collected from ponds showed low levels of heavy metals. Furthermore, the biochemical profiles of the five species of amphipods have been compared with other studied alternative prey. Therefore, pond amphipods are good candidates to be used as feed, and are proposed as a new sustainable economic resource to be used in aquaculture.G. insensibilismay be the best for intensive culture as an alternative feed resource because it shows: (1) adequate n-3 PUFA and PL composition; (2) high levels of glycine, alanine, tyrosine, isoleucine and lysine; (3) high natural densities; (4) large body size (≥1 cm), and (5) high concentration of calcium. Moreover, a combined culture of amphipods and fishes in these marsh ponds seems a promising and environmentally sustainable way to develop Integrate Multi-Trophic Aquaculture (IMTA) in these ecosystems.
Funder
conseRjeria de Innovación, Ciencia y Empresa, Junta de Andalucía
INIA
Subject
General Agricultural and Biological Sciences,General Biochemistry, Genetics and Molecular Biology,General Medicine,General Neuroscience
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