Dr Camilla Bertolini1, Prof. Roberto Pastres
1Ca’ Foscari University, Venice, Italy
Shellfish provide a number of Ecosystem Services beyond the provision of food, including regulating services, and have in recent years received focused attention with regards to the potential as a restorative aquaculture species given their carbon sequestration and nitrogen removal capacities. On the other hand shellfish reefs are considered to be in peril in many parts of the world and active protection or restoration actions may be necessary. The use of alternative finance schemes , such as carbon credits or nutrient trading schemes, suggested as tools to increase aquaculture revenues, could also be useful for the set-up of large scale reef restoration projects. To apply these schemes it is necessary to estimate the fluxes of C and N of the project in time against a baseline (no project) scenario. To address this we propose the use of growth models based on scope for growth, allowing to quantify inputs and outputs of C and N based on feeding, mass production (shell, somatic tissue and gonads separately) and excretion. In this study individual models were parameterized for Ostrea edulis, Crassostrea gigas and Mytilus galloprovincialis. A scale up to population was done by simulating typical population sizes and dynamics (new recruitment and mortality). The models rely on temperature and chlorophyll as forcing functions, for the purpose of this study time series for the Venice lagoon were used, but the models could be easily extended to other areas. Considerations for the fate and remineralization of excreted carbon in relation to site-specific drivers are also made.
Presentation Slides – Camilla Bertolini
