ABSTRACT: The influence of cage aquaculture on the benthic environment is a crucial concern for sustainable development. The impacts are affected by multiple environmental factors and aquaculture operations. Our main objective was to comprehensively analyze the interaction between Norwegian salmon aquaculture and the benthic environment, involving prolonged temporal observations and wide-ranging spatial assessments, achieved through reviewing government-regulated environmental assessment reports. A total of 3480 reports from 759 farms operating between 2016 and 2022 were analyzed. Our main finding was that the impact of Norwegian salmon cage aquaculture on the benthic environment varied significantly across the Northern, Central, and Southern regions (p < 0.001). This variability was significantly associated with factors such as water depth (p < 0.05), maximum allowable biomass density (p < 0.001), and length of the production cycle (p < 0.001), and was slightly correlated with current velocity (p = 0.067). Additionally, we observed that the most severe environmental degradation often occurred during the summer-autumn period under maximal annual feeding rates. Further, we traced 2922 reports to investigate the changes in the state of the benthic ecosystem over multiple production cycles. We found that the environmental impact of seafloor ecosystems was recoverable, with more effective recovery rates in the early stages of degradation compared to the later stages. We suggested that the optimal biomass levels, production cycle arrangement, and farming practices should differ depending on specific environmental factors. It is imperative to consider these factors for adapting farming operations and take early action when the benthic environment shows signs of degradation.

中文翻译：

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监测挪威鲑鱼网箱养殖场的区域底栖环境

摘要：网箱养殖对底栖环境的影响是可持续发展的一个重要问题。这些影响受到多种环境因素和水产养殖作业的影响。我们的主要目标是通过审查政府监管的环境评估报告来全面分析挪威鲑鱼养殖与底栖环境之间的相互作用，包括长期的时间观测和广泛的空间评估。分析了 2016 年至 2022 年间运营的 759 个农场的 3480 份报告。我们的主要发现是，挪威鲑鱼网箱养殖对北部、中部和南部地区底栖环境的影响存在显着差异（p < 0.001）。这种变异性与水深 (p < 0.05)、最大允许生物量密度 (p < 0.001) 和生产周期长度 (p < 0.001) 等因素显着相关，并且与水流速度略有相关 (p = 0.067) ）。此外，我们观察到最严重的环境退化往往发生在每年最大摄食率的夏秋季节。此外，我们追踪了 2922 份报告，以调查多个生产周期内底栖生态系统状态的变化。我们发现海底生态系统的环境影响是可恢复的，退化早期阶段的有效恢复率高于后期阶段。我们建议，最佳生物量水平、生产周期安排和耕作方式应根据具体环境因素而有所不同。当海底环境出现退化迹象时，必须考虑这些因素来调整农业经营并尽早采取行动。