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Aquaponics systems and technologies are growing primary industries in many countries, with high environmental and socio-economic advantages. Aquaponics is a closed-loop system that produces aquatic animals and plants in a new way using recirculated water and nutrients. With a growing world population expected to reach 9.7 billion by 2050, food production sustainability is a primary issue in today’s world agenda, and aquaponics and aquaculture systems can be potential contributors to the challenge. Observing the climate changes and global warming’s impact on the ecosystem, decreasing aqua animal stocks, and responding to increasing demand are turning points in the sustainability era. In the past 15 years, fish production has doubled, thus denoting that aquaponics transforms into commercial scales with a revolutionized production, high efficiency, and fewer resources’ utilization, thus requiring proper operation and management standards and practices. Therefore, this study aims to shape a new framework for sustainable aquaponics modeling and utilization as the all-in-one solution platform covering technical, managerial, socio-economic, institutional, and environmental measures within the suitability requirements. The proposed model in this study offers a systematic approach to the design and implementation of sustainability-efficient aquaponics and aquaculture systems. Through an exhaustive coverage of the topic, this research effort can be counted as a practical reference for researchers, scholars, experts, practitioners, and students in the context of aquaponics and aquaculture studies.

Unequivocal change in the climate system has put coastal regions around the world at increasing risk from climate-related hazards. Monitoring the coast is often difficult and expensive, resulting in sparse monitoring equipment lacking in sufficient temporal and spatial coverage. Thus, low-cost methods to monitor the coast at finer temporal and spatial resolution are imperative for climate resilience along the world’s coasts. Exploiting such low-cost methods for the development of early warning support could be invaluable to coastal settlements. This paper aims to provide the most up-to-date low-cost techniques developed and used in the last decade for monitoring coastal hazards and their forcing agents via systematic review of the peer-reviewed literature in three scientific databases: Scopus, Web of Science and ScienceDirect. A total of 60 papers retrieved from these databases through the preferred reporting items for systematic reviews and meta-analyses (PRISMA) protocol were analysed in detail to yield different categories of low-cost sensors. These sensors span the entire domain for monitoring coastal hazards, as they focus on monitoring coastal zone characteristics (e.g., topography), forcing agents (e.g., water levels), and the hazards themselves (e.g., coastal flooding). It was found from the meta-analysis of the retrieved papers that terrestrial photogrammetry, followed by aerial photogrammetry, was the most widely used technique for monitoring different coastal hazards, mainly coastal erosion and shoreline change. Different monitoring techniques are available to monitor the same hazard/forcing agent, for instance, unmanned aerial vehicles (UAVs), time-lapse cameras, and wireless sensor networks (WSNs) for monitoring coastal morphological changes such as beach erosion, creating opportunities to not only select but also combine different techniques to meet specific monitoring objectives. The sensors considered in this paper are useful for monitoring the most pressing challenges in coastal zones due to the changing climate. Such a review could be extended to encompass more sensors and variables in the future due to the systematic approach of this review. This study is the first to systematically review a wide range of low-cost sensors available for the monitoring of coastal zones in the context of changing climate and is expected to benefit coastal researchers and managers to choose suitable low-cost sensors to meet their desired objectives for the regular monitoring of the coast to increase climate resilience.

Although modern medicine is available in many developing countries, such as the Comoros Islands, the primary health-care needs of the local population are based on traditional foods and beverages derived from natural resources and medicinal plants for cultural and historical reasons. Aphloia theiformis (Vahl) Benn. (‘Mfandrabo’), Cinnamomum verum J.Presl (‘Mani yamdrara’), Ocimum gratissimum L. (‘Roulé’), Plectranthus amboinicus (Lour.) Spreng. (‘Ynadombwe’), Cymbopogon nardus (L.) Rendle (‘Sandze monach’) and Ocimum americanum L. (‘Kandza’) are six wild plants that are largely utilised to treat many diseases. The leaves of these plants are used in the traditional Comorian tea (aqueous infusion). This study aimed to identify and quantify the main health-promoting compounds in the traditional formulation of Comorian tea by HPLC profiling together with a preliminary assessment of antioxidant capacity to confirm the traditional use of these plants by the local population. The single plants were also studied. The Comoros tea presented a total polyphenolic content (TPC) of 4511.50 ± 74.41 mgGAE/100 g DW, a value higher than the TPCs of the different plants included in the Comorian tea. Moreover, the Comorian tea showed an antioxidant capacity (AOC) of 578.65 ± 6.48 mmol Fe2+/Kg DW, a value higher if compared to all the AOC values obtained in the single plants. The polyphenolic fraction (771.37 ± 35.76 mg/100 g DW) and organic acids (981.40 ± 38.38 mg/100 g DW) were the most important phytochemical classes in the Comorian tea (40.68% and 51.75% of the total phytocomplex, respectively), followed by the monoterpenes (5.88%) and vitamin C (1.67%), while carotenoids were detected in trace (0.02%). The Comorian tea could be important in meeting the high demand in the Comoros Islands and other developing countries for cost-effective and natural health-promoting foods and/or beverages to be produced by agri-food industries and used by the local population. This study may promote traditional foods in rural communities in the Comoros Islands and contribute to sustainable rural development and a commercial valorisation of these plants for health-promoting and food applications.

Poster presented during the H2020 "MUSES" project stakeholder workshop ’Embracing opportunities – Ocean Multi-Use Action Plan development workshop’ (Venice - June 27th, 2018). The poster analyses the potential for development of Multi-Use in the Northern-Adriatic coastal waters by combining existing and innovative touristic services with other traditional economic sectors and assets on the area. Drivers, added values, barriers, and impacts of Multi-Use have been identified integrating desk analysis and stakeholders perception. The results show the existence of a good potential for Multi-Use development and Blue-Growth in the area, still limited by barriers, particularly in the field of legislation, administrative processes and stakeholders capacity. Needed actions at local and regional (sub-national) level are highlighted in order to exploit this potential.

AbstractThere is strong evidence of an increase in primary production (PP) in the Arctic Ocean (AO) over the last two decades. Further increases will depend on the interplay between decreasing light limitation for primary producers, as the sea ice extent and thickness decrease, and the availability of nutrients, which is controlled by, but not limited to, inputs from the Atlantic and the Pacific Oceans. While these inputs are the major nutrient sources to the AO, ocean vertical mixing is required to bring the nutrients into the photic zone. We analyze data collected in the Western Eurasian Basin (WEB) between 1980 and 2016 and characterize the nutrient climatology of the various water masses. We conclude that there were no significant trends in the concentrations of the two macronutrients that typically limit PP in the AO (nitrate and silicic acid, in the case of diatoms), except a decreasing trend for silicic acid in Polar Surface Water (PSW), which is consistent with the reported increase in PP in the AO. We suggest that the Whalers Bay polynya, located in the northwestern corner of Svalbard, may act as a mixing hotspot, creating patches of nutrient replenished PSW. These patches may then be advected to higher latitudes under the ice pack, later boosting PP upon release from light limitation or else, keeping a nutrient reservoir that may be used in a subsequent growth season. It is likely that this remaining nutrient reservoir will decrease as sea ice cover retreats and light limitation alleviates.

The European Green Deal is a political milestone aiming to promote a carbon-neutral economy in the European Union. Decarbonizing the complex food sector requires the unified interaction among effective climate policies, economic instruments, and initiatives involving multiple stakeholders. Despite increasing efforts to highlight the importance of innovations and finance to achieve sustainable food supply chains (FSC), comprehensive information about related opportunities and barriers to mitigating emissions in the food sector is still under-explored. To cover this gap, this paper applies an existing industrial policy framework under the lens of the EU FSC to identify potential strategies that should help achieve the needed financial means and innovation actions, as well as to gauge political alignment across FSC stages. Methodologically, the pillars proposed in the framework are linked to multi-stakeholders’ initiatives engaged in achieving net-zero emissions. The paper highlights three main implications of the identified interlinkages. First, political directionality related to the food sector should be more comprehensively tailored to account for the specificities of all stages of the FSC. Second, research and development projects shall likewise cover all stages, instead of emphasizing only food production and agricultural systems. Finally, multiple stakeholders are crucial as promoters of technology and innovation towards a green economy. Nevertheless, initiatives should be integrated into political discussions in order to promote civil awareness, sustainable food and services demand, aligned to political guidelines.