Comparing environmental impacts of native and introduced freshwater prawn farming in Brazil and the influence of better effluent management using LCA ☆ Alexandre Augusto Oliveira Santos a,e, ⁎, Joël Aubin b,c , Michael S. Corson b,c , Wagner C. Valenti a,d , Antonio Fernando Monteiro Camargo a,e a Centro de Aquicultura da UNESP (CAUNESP), Jaboticabal, SP, Brazil b INRA, UMR 1069 Sol Agro et hydrosystème Spatialisation, F-35000 Rennes, France c Agrocampus Ouest, F-35000 Rennes, France d São Paulo State University, UNESP, Coastal campus of São Vicente, São Vicente, SP, Brazil e Universidade Estadual Paulista — UNESP, Departamento de Ecologia, IB, Rio Claro, SP, Brazil abstract article info Article history: Received 9 July 2013 Received in revised form 12 February 2015 Accepted 6 March 2015 Available online 13 March 2015 Keywords: Macrobrachium rosenbergii Macrobrachium amazonicum Freshwater prawn farming Constructed wetlands Life cycle assessment Environmental sustainability Concern about environmental impacts of aquaculture and its interaction with natural resources is increasing. Thus, it is important for new production systems to use practices that reduce environmental impacts, suchas choosing to farm native species from a region's biological diversity and adopting better effluent management. This study aimed to estimate and compare environmental impacts of tropical freshwater prawn farming systems based either on the introduced species Macrobrachium rosenbergii (giant river prawn) or the native species Macrobrachium amazonicum (Amazon river prawn). The two hypothetical systems were compared using life cycle assessment (LCA) with the impact categories climate change, eutrophication, acidification, energy use, net primary production use, surface use and water dependence. Yields, species, feed conversation ratio (FCR) and feed processing were the factors with the most influence. The higher yield and lower FCR of giant river prawn induced lower impacts than native Amazon river prawn in all categories analyzed. Regardless of species, better effluent management in freshwater prawn farming, such as treating effluents with aquatic macrophytes or applying pond sediments to crops, significantly reduced eutrophication potential, making it extremely important to recommend using it in freshwater prawn farming. © 2015 Elsevier B.V. All rights reserved. 1. Introduction In 2012, aquaculture and capture fisheries supplied ~ 158 million t of aquatic-animal products to the global market, of which 136 million t was for human consumption (corresponding to 19.2 kg per capita) (FAO, 2014). Aquaculture contributed a record 42% of this total (FAO, 2014), reflecting the strength of the aquaculture sector. In the last three decades (1980–2010) world aquaculture production has expand- ed by a factor of 12, at an average annual rate of 10.8% in the 1980s, 9.5% in the 1990s, and 6.3% since 2000. During this period, Latin America was the fastest-growing region, especially Brazil and Peru, with annual per capita fish consumption of about 9.9 kg (FAO, 2012). Aquaculture pro- duction in 2010 in the Americas was 2.58 million t, corresponding to about 4.3% of world production (FAO, 2012). By mass, Brazil is the 17th largest producer of aquaculture products in the world and the 3rd largest in the Americas, with annual production of 480,000 t of fish. In 2010, inland aquaculture represented 82% of national production by mass. In the same year, marine aquaculture pro- duced 80,000 t, of which 82% was the marine shrimp Litopenaeus vannamei (whiteleg shrimp). In contrast, global production of Macrobrachium rosenbergii (giant river prawn) in 2007 exceeded 221,000 t, 2.7 times as large as it had been a decade earlier (New, 2010). From 2008–2010, the quantity of aquaculture production in Brazil increased by 31% (MPA, 2012). It now represents 19% of total pro- duction in Latin America (FAO, 2012). In 2011, Brazil produced 265 t of the introduced species M. rosenbergii (FAO, 2013). The key to ensuring the sustainability of freshwater prawn farming is achieving the most efficient use of available resources while not compromising the environment. The lower density in freshwater prawn farming than marine shrimp farming allows natural productivity to supply a greater proportion of nutrient requirements. Maximizing the contribution of natural productivity via organic fertilization usually reduces feed costs, thereby decreasing operational costs (New et al., 2010). Marine shrimp production has been reputed to be Aquaculture 444 (2015) 151–159 ☆ Support: FAPESP (São Paulo Research Foundation) — Proc. 2009/07894-1. ⁎ Corresponding author at: Universidade Estadual Paulista — UNESP, Departamento de Ecologia, IB, Rio Claro, SP, Brazil. E-mail address: alexandreaosantos@gmail.com (A.A.O. Santos). http://dx.doi.org/10.1016/j.aquaculture.2015.03.006 0044-8486/© 2015 Elsevier B.V. All rights reserved. Contents lists available at ScienceDirect Aquaculture journal homepage: www.elsevier.com/locate/aqua-online