The aquaculture was an important industry and far exceeded the estimated carrying capacities of the voluminous reservoirs in China, which derived the problem of overfishing in public waters at the same time. To compare the conventional intensive cage fish farming system in deep reservoir, the aquaponics ecosystem was a novel method, technology and ecological engineering, which was designed suitability key to settle social issues as the lack of arable land area and degradation with water scarcity on agricultural production in widespread world. The objective of this study was to describe aquaponics ecosystem based on emergy theory during operating conditions, inputs (purchase resources, steel, plants and fry) and outputs (aquatic vegetables, aquatic product and water treatment) and their relationship for a multi-level aquaponics model operation in a deep reservoir, a tributary of Yangtze basin. Our results showed that the system was driven primarily by imported emergy from the economy such as labor, purchase resources, steel, plants and fry. In comparison with other aquaculture products, aquaponics ecosystem production was supported by a higher emergy yields ratio (3.964), a lower environmental loading ratio (5.623) than other forms of aquaculture; however, the emergy yield ratio was 0.705 and the emergy density was 3.73E+17 SEJ/yr/ha. The aquaponics ecosystem had a lower environmental loading, a fine environmental influence, a high yield and better feedback due to design and allocate integrated self-system structure with producer, consumer and microcomposer, which reduced motor fuel use, labor, and services with conventional intensive cage fish farming system. 

Yue Junsheng, Yu Yongchang, Liu Min, Li Chuanzhang, Chen Lei, Liang Zhibo. The Emergy Evaluation to a Novel Aquaponics Ecosystem in Deep Reservoir of the Middle Reaches in Yangtze Basin. Academic Journal of Environment & Earth Science (2025), Vol. 7, Issue 3: 30-37. https://doi.org/10.25236/AJEE.2025.070304.

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