THE CARBON BUDGET AND ENERGY CONTENTS IN THE CULTURE OF THE AMAZON RIVER PRAWN AND TAMBAQUI FARMED IN MONOCULTURE AND IN INTEGRATED MULTITROPHIC SYSTEMS
This work aimed to determine the inputs, outputs and accumulation of carbon and the energetic content in each of the ecological compartments of the monoculture and polyculture systems with the Amazon River prawn, Macrobrachium amazonicum and tambaqui, Colossoma macropomum in earthen ponds, using hypereutrophic water. In addition, we tested the hypothesis that the integrated multitrophic aquaculture system (IMTA) is more efficient in using the input of carbon than monoculture.
A completely randomized experiment was designed with four treatments and three replications: MP - monoculture with 30 prawns/m2, MT- monoculture with 1 fish/m2, PF- polyculture (IMTA) with 30 prawns/m2 and 1 fish/m2 free, PH - polyculture (IMTA) with 30 prawns/m2 free and 30 fish/m3 in hapa nets. Samples of water, gas, sediment, feed, and animals stocked and harvested, were all collected throughout the experiment to determine the total carbon content in each ecological compartment and the carbon balance. Energetic content was determined in the feed and the animals.
Results showed that the carbon supplied was mainly accumulated inside the ponds as sediment and effluent water, with a small quantity of carbon being lost to the atmosphere (Table 1). The use efficiency of carbon by the animals ranged from ~10 - 27%. Data did not confirm the hypotheses that IMTA is more efficient than monoculture to accumulate carbon in the biomass produced.