Abstract
The intensification of aquaculture has largely simplified ecological structures, leading to the dominance of monoculture systems, truncated trophic pathways, and limited contributions of natural food webs to production. However, there is growing interest in more complex systems, such as integrated and multi-species aquaculture, due to their potential benefits in nutrient recycling and resource-use efficiency. Optimizing stocking densities, species assemblages, and feeding strategies in such systems requires a detailed understanding of predator–prey interactions, energy and nutrient flows among functional groups, and overall ecosystem functioning. These challenges highlight the need for analytical frameworks capable of representing multi-species aquaculture systems as ecological networks rather than isolated production units.
Among ecosystem modelling tools, the Ecopath with Ecosim (EwE) framework has become one of the most widely used approaches for analysing aquatic food webs, owing to its balance between simplicity and ecological realism, as well as its relatively low data requirements. Originally developed to construct mass-balanced representations of marine ecosystems, it has been increasingly applied to aquaculture systems. However, aquaculture systems differ substantially from large-scale, open marine ecosystems. They are typically characterized by simplified community composition, short production cycles, and small-scale, engineered environments. Consequently, this emerging field of application raises fundamental methodological questions: To what extent can an Ecopath model, originally designed for natural food webs, adequately represent systems under strong human control? How should models be constructed and parameterized for rapidly changing systems of relatively short duration? Which ecosystem indicators are most relevant for aquaculture management and optimization? To date, no review has systematically examined these challenges or provided an overview of research objectives and system types addressed in aquaculture applications of EwE.
In this review, we aim to provide a comprehensive synthesis of how Ecopath has been applied to aquaculture-related questions across system types and geographic regions. Beyond cataloguing applications, we critically analyse these studies by confronting the conceptual assumptions and modelling capacities of EwE with the structural characteristics of aquaculture systems. We seek to clarify both the opportunities and limitations of EwE in aquaculture science. This work also contributes to the development of ecosystem-based aquaculture management strategies that are both ecologically robust and operationally relevant.
References
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