Salmon farm impacts on muddy-sediment megabenthic assemblages on the west coast of Scotland

Aquaculture Environment Interactions

Thom D. Nickell¹  David J. Hughes¹  Thomas A. Wilding¹  Chris J. Cromey¹ 

关键词: Aquaculture;    Fish farm effluent;    Fatty acids;    Benthic food web;   

DOI  :  10.3354/aei00038

学科分类：生物科学（综合）

来源: Inter-Research

【 摘 要 】

ABSTRACT: We assessed the impact of salmon farms on the megabenthos associated with muddy habitats using a novel drop-and-drift video camera approach. Megabenthic burrowers and suspension feeders were adversely affected by farm proximity, as indicated by modelled benthic flux of dry solids (DSFlux, g m⁻² yr⁻¹). The burrow-count threshold DSflux was 400, beyond which burrow density declined rapidly. Suspension feeder densities were reduced by a factor of 4 in close proximity (DSFlux > 8000 g m^�?2 yr^�?1) to the salmon farms, but only where the sediment was relatively muddy. In terms of suspension feeders, threshold levels of DSFlux varied between sites, ranging from 12 to 665 g m^�?2 yr^�?1. There was no evidence that vagile predator/scavengers were either attracted to, or repelled by, salmon farms. We conclude that burrowers and suspension feeders were relatively resilient to salmon farms in muddy, sea-loch habitats and that detectable im­pacts did not exceed 100 m from the cage boundary.

【 授权许可】

Unknown