Development and Standardization of Physical, Operational, and Performance Metrics for Aquaponics

Abstract

Aquaponics, the integration of fish culture with plant production, has attracted widespread interest as a method to reduce the environmental impacts of food production and provide locally produced, healthy food. Recent surveys have found that most practitioners are hobbyists, producers, or educators. Many systems have evolved from small-scale experimental facilities devised by trial-and-error methods and implemented with locally available species. The expansion of aquaponics to commercial-scale systems is limited by the lack of standardized experimental design and performance metrics. This work documents the physical and chemical characteristics of aquaponic systems and reviews important performance parameters. This standardization will help in the design of aquaponic systems, streamline data collection and analysis, promote consistency among researchers, and aid in the economic evaluation of commercial systems.

Keywords:

• Aquaponics design
• aquaponics reporting procedures
• research criteria
• standardized operating procedures
• aquaponics management

Author contributions

Credit: Conceptualization: JC; Methodology: JC, JT, RLF; Validation: JC, JT, RLF; Investigation: JC, JT, RLF; Writing – Original Draft: JC, JT, RLF; Writing – Review and Editing: JC, JT, RLF; Visualization: JC, JT, RLF; Supervision: JC; Project Administration: JC, JT, and RLF.

Disclosure statement

No potential conflict of interest was reported by the author(s).