Integrated multitrophic aquaculture (IMTA), where species of different trophic level are grown together to feed on the byproducts of the other species, has been proposed to a sustainable alternative to intensive traditional monoculture. The implementation of a commercially successful IMTA system is challenging as it requires characterizing biological (e.g. composition, density and nutrient remotion capacity of the crops), oceanographic (e.g. current, wave action, bathymetry), and legal and socioeconomic components local. This two-year project (started on June 2024) aims to develop a prioritization matrix based on biological, environmental, socioeconomic and legal criteria, as a tool to help evaluating the pertinence of the implementation of IMTA in Areas of Management and Exploitation of Benthic Resources (AMERB) in Chile.
The matrix will be based on the results of an on-land experimental IMTA system, which integrates fish (Seriolella violacea), bivalves (Magallana gigas, Argopecten purpuratus), algae (Chondracanthus chamissoi, Agarophyton chilensis) and shrimp (Rhynchocinetes typus), to quantify nutrient (nitrogen, phosphorous) remotion efficiency, survival and growth rate of the extractive species. The matrix will also be built upon the results of local and regional hydrodynamic models to define the optimal spatial disposition of the different elements of an IMTA (placement protocol) under exposed and semi-protected hydrodynamic conditions. Finally, the matrix will also integrate legal and socio-economic components from workshops and interviews with experts and professionals.
Here we present some of the first results obtained from the ongoing experimental multitrophic system in the laboratory, and from the ongoing analysis of hydrodynamic models.