Modifications in aquaculture technology for increasing fishpond’s primary productivity in temperate climatic conditions

Abstract

Aquaculture plays a great role in producing foodstuffs, sustaining inland capture fisheries and providing employment. The key to future development in pond aquaculture is diversification of production technology, intensity, and function connected to increasing the environmental value of pond areas. New production systems involve a combination of intensive and extensive pond culture, increasing productivity and improving nutrient utilisation and fish species diversification. The most important principle of these systems is the possibility to use the wastes from intensive aquaculture as the input for extensive, environment-friendly fish production. These systems were proven to be profitable and sustainable in tropical and subtropical areas. However, for temperate climatic conditions, such data are scarce. For this reason, we decided to discuss modifications that, in our opinion, can be applied in an extensive part of the integrated intensive-extensive system in temperate climatic conditions in order to increase the overall productivity of the pond aquaculture.