Biofiltration Efficiency of Saccharina japonica for Integrated Multi-Trophic Aquaculture (IMTA)

To determine whether the seaweed Saccharina japonica can effectively utilize dissolved nutrients from Sebastes schlegeli fish cultures, a laboratory experiment was conducted in a static system for 7 days at ESFRI, NFRDI in Korea. The experiment included an S. schlegeli monoculture system and an S. schlegeli-S. japonica IMTA system. Saccharina schlegeli density (; meanSE) remained the same in all treatments, whereas seaweed density varied across treatments of 0, 0.5, 1, 2, and 3 kg (control and T1-T4, respectively). During the experiment, nutrient ( and ) concentrations were measured at 24-h intervals. concentration of the control group increased from at the start of experiment to at the end of experiment. concentrations of each treatment were , , and in T1, T2, T3, and T4, respectively, at the end of experiment. The concentration of exhibited a similar trend to concentration. and concentrations significantly decreased with increased S. japonica thallus density each day (P and S. japonica weight, regression analysis defined the relationship between as an exponential function, $Y