Influence of carbohydrate addition on nitrogen transformations and greenhouse gas emissions of intensive aquaculture system

Aquaculture is one of the fastest-growing segments of the food economy in modern times. It is also being considered as an important source of greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions. To date, limited studies have been conducted on GHG emissions from aquaculture system. In this study, daily addition of fish feed and soluble starch at a carbon-to-nitrogen (C/N) ratio of 16:1 (w/w) was used to examine the effects of carbohydrate addition on nitrogen transformations and GHG emissions in a zero-water exchange intensive aquaculture system. The addition of soluble starch stimulated heterotrophic bacterial growth and denitrification, which led to lower total ammonia nitrogen, nitrite and nitrate concentrations in aqueous phase. About 76.2% of the nitrogen output was emitted in the form of gaseous nitrogen (i.e., N2 and N2O) in the treatment tank (i.e., aquaculture tank with soluble starch addition), while gaseous nitrogen accounted for 33.3% of the nitrogen output in the control tank (i.e., aquaculture tank without soluble starch addition). Although soluble starch addition reduced daily N2O emissions by 83.4%, it resulted in an increase of daily carbon dioxide (CO2) emissions by 91.1%. Overall, starch addition did not contribute to controlling the GHG emissions from the aquaculture system.