Development of potential yield loss indicators to assess the effect of seaweed farming on fish landings

In recent years, several indicators have been proposed to assess the effect of human activities on ecosystems provisioning capacity. Some of these methods focus on the Net Primary Production (NPP) available for ecosystem functioning through the comparison between the Human Appropriated Net Primary Production (HANPP) and the ecosystem's initial NPP at a given reference year. While some approaches have been proposed for marine ecosystems, most of the HANPP studies focus on terrestrial systems. This study highlights the relation between the HANPP methods and the production of natural resources in marine ecosystems. The linkage between current overfishing and future fish provisioning (ecosystem service) is well known. However, less studied before, is the relation between seaweed aquaculture and fish provisioning through the marine food web. Seaweed growth requires nutrients and light that will consequently be no longer available for natural phytoplankton production. As seaweed is periodically harvested, a fraction of the ecosystem's NPP (HANPP) is no longer available for ecosystem production. The HANPP of aquaculture reduces the ecosystem carrying capacity and thus affects commercial fish stocks. Therefore, an integrative approach is proposed in this study to assess the potential effect of seaweed farming on fish landings in the Greater North Sea. Three indicators are proposed to assess the Lost Potential Yield (LPY) in fish landings: LPYB, LPYV and LPYE, accounting respectively for reduction in biomass, monetary value and eco-exergy. For these three aspects, the LPY results remains smaller than the seaweed production, meaning that the overall natural resources balance for seaweed farming is positive.