Efectos del cultivo de salmón sobre crustáceos bénticos Effects of salmon farming on benthic Crustacea

摘要: Scotland is the largest aquaculture producer in European Union and utilizes almost all of its fjords for salmon culture. Recent UK policy has encouraged movement farm cages away from enclosed sites to areas with strong tidal flow because farms are known cause organic-enrichment muddy substrata low flow. This resulted a spate applications site over coralline algal gravel beds (termed maerl) that usually strongly provide habitat diverse array benthic Crustacea. In 2003 we studied effects waste on crustaceans large Shetland had been situated above maerl bed since 1991. Annual monitoring reports showed die-back living maerl, periods anoxia an accumulation organic material seabed within 25 m cages. Assessments crustacean assemblages, quantified using 0.5-mm-sieved replicate (n = 5 per site) core samples, significant reductions biodiversity near farm. Some scavengers (e.g., amphipod Socarnes erythrophthalmus) were far more abundant than at distances >75 cages, but many small tanaids Leptognathia breviremis, Typhlotanais microcheles Psudoparatanais batei; cumaceans Nannastacus unguiculatus, Cumella pygmaea Vaunthompsonia cristata; Austrosyrrhoe fimbriatus) impoverished We found Crustacea significantly impacted by farm, despite presence currents, probably due combined wastes use toxins combat parasitic copepods. recommend “fallowing”, whereby moved between allow recovery, not carried out where long-lived biogenic habitats such as occur this will likely increase area degradation.