THE REMEDIA LIFE INTEGRATED MULTITROPHIC AQUACULTURE SYSTEM AS A POWERFUL SPONGE BIOMASS SUPPLY

Joseba Aguilo-Arce; Pere Ferriol; Patrizia Puthod; Roberta Trani; Caterina Longo

Joseba Aguilo-Arce Università degli Studi di Bari Aldo Moro
Pere Ferriol
Patrizia Puthod
Roberta Trani
Caterina Longo

Keywords: Porifera, Aquaculture, Growth Rate, Survival

Abstract

The present study was undertaken to assess the survival and the growth rate of the sponges Aplysina aerophoba (Nardo, 1833), Geodia cydonium (Linnaeus, 1767), Hymeniacidon perlevis (Montagu, 1814) and Ircinia variabilis (Schmidt, 1862) within an integrated multitrophic aquaculture system to highlight their suitability for a circular blue economy. Donor sponges were cut into explants and arranged in net bags to monthly monitor their rearing performance in terms of survival and volumetric growth rates. All sponge species showed a high survival ratio not lower than 95 %. Similarly, most species showed values of more than 7% monthly volume increase (with values up to 16% for A. aerophoba) and final volumes more than 150% of the initial (A. aerophoba reaching 400%). All in all, these results make these sponge species reliable candidates for co-culturing in IMTA systems and a possible solution to the biomass supply problem.