Publications

Max Troell, Noureddine Benkeblia, Catriona Hurd, Thierry Chopin, Barry A. Costa-Pierce, Mark J. Costello. 2024. Seaweeds for carbon dioxide removal (CDR)–Getting the science right. PLOS Climate. https://doi.org/10.1371/journal.pclm.0000377

To keep global warming < 2˚C, Almaraz et al. [1] highlight the need to drastically reduce greenhouse gas emissions from food production and remove atmospheric carbon dioxide by 2050. They provided an expert analysis of the potential of terrestrial based biological methods of carbon dioxide removal (CDR), including technologies that “demonstrated high impact potential supported by peer-reviewed literature”. However, scientific...

Killian Chary, Anne‐Jo van Riel, Abigail Muscat, Aurélie Wilfart, Souhil Harchaoui, Marc Verdegem, Ramón Filgueira, Max Troell, Patrik J. G. Henriksson, Imke J. M. de Boer, Geert F. Wiegertjes. 2023. Transforming sustainable aquaculture by applying circularity principles. Reviews in Aquaculture. https://doi.org/10.1111/raq.12860

A circular economy is considered one way to reduce environmental impacts of human activities, by more efficient use of resources and recovery, resulting in less waste and emissions compared to linear take-make-dispose systems. Muscat et al. developed five ecological principles to guide biomass use towards a circular economy. A few studies have demonstrated environmental benefits of applying these principles to land-based food ...

Ling Cao, Benjamin S. Halpern, Max Troell, Rebecca Short, Cong Zeng, Ziyu Jiang, Yue Liu, Chengxuan Zou, Chunyu Liu, Shurong Liu, Xiangwei Liu, William W. L. Cheung, Richard S. Cottrell, Fabrice DeClerck, Stefan Gelcich, Jessica A. Gephart, Dakoury Godo-Solo, Jessie Ihilani Kaull, Fiorenza Micheli, Rosamond L. Naylor, Hanna J. Payne, Elizabeth R. Selig, U. Rashid Sumaila, Michelle Tigchelaar. 2023. Vulnerability of blue foods to human-induced environmental change. Nature Sustainability. https://doi.org/10.1038/s41893-023-01156-y

Global aquatic or ‘blue’ foods, essential to over 3.2 billion people, face challenges of maintaining supply in a changing environment while adhering to safety and sustainability standards. Despite the growing concerns over their environmental impacts, limited attention has been paid to how blue food production is influenced by anthropogenic environmental changes. Here we assess the vulnerability of global blue food systems to ...

Luthman, O., Jonell, M., Rönnbäck, P., Troell, M. 2022. Strong and weak sustainability in Nordic aquaculture policies. Aquaculture. http://dx.doi.org/10.1016/j.aquaculture.2021.737841

In this paper, we critically analyze how sustainability is considered in aquaculture policies and strategies using the Nordic countries as a case. The strong versus weak sustainability concepts are used to define and clarify what sustainability aspects are central to each state. To illustrate these concepts further, we draw on and modify four mainstream environmental discourses defined by John Dryzek and apply them to the stro...

Giri, S., Daw, T., Hazra, S., Troell, M., Samanta, S., Basu, O., Marcinko, C., Chanda, A.. 2022. Economic incentives drive the conversion of agriculture to aquaculture in the Indian Sundarbans: Livelihood and environmental implications of different aquaculture types. Ambio. http://dx.doi.org/10.1007/s13280-022-01720-4

Expansion of aquaculture in the Sundarbans Biosphere Reserve (SBR) is irreversibly replacing agricultural land and the drivers of this change are disputed. Based on in-depth interviews with 67 aquaculture farmers, this paper characterizes major aquaculture types in the SBR, their impacts, and identifies drivers of conversion from agricultural land. Aquaculture types included traditional, improved-traditional, modified-extensiv...

Österblom, H., Folke, C., Rocha, J. et al. Scientific mobilization of keystone actors for biosphere stewardship. Sci Rep 12, 3802 (2022). https://doi.org/10.1038/s41598-022-07023-8

The biosphere crisis requires changes to existing business practices. We ask how corporations can become sustainability leaders, when constrained by multiple barriers to collaboration for biosphere stewardship. We describe how scientists motivated, inspired and engaged with ten of the world’s largest seafood companies, in a collaborative process aimed to enable science-based and systemic transformations (2015–2021). CEOs face...

Sandström, V., Chrysafi, A., Lamminen, M. et al. 2022. Food system by-products upcycled in livestock and aquaculture feeds can increase global food supply. Nat Food 3, 729–740 (2022). https://doi.org/10.1038/s43016-022-00589-6

Many livestock and aquaculture feeds compete for resources with food production. Increasing the use of food system by-products and residues as feed could reduce this competition. We gathered data on global food system material flows for crop, livestock and aquaculture production, focusing on feed use and the availability of by-products and residues. We then analysed the potential of replacing food-competing feedstuff—here cere...

Graells, T., Lambraki, I.A., Cousins, M., Léger, A., et.al. 2022. Studying Factors Affecting Success of Antimicrobial Resistance Interventions through the Lens of Experience: A Thematic Analysis. Antibiotics (Basel). 2022 May 10;11(5):639. doi: 10.3390/antibiotics11050639.

Antimicrobial resistance (AMR) affects the environment, and animal and human health. Institutions worldwide have applied various measures, some of which have reduced antimicrobial use and AMR. However, little is known about factors influencing the success of AMR interventions. To address this gap, we engaged health professionals, designers, and implementers of AMR interventions in an exploratory study to learn about their exp...

Troell, M., Henriksson, P.J.G., Buschmann, A.H., Chopin, T., Quahe, S. 2022. Farming the Ocean – Seaweeds as a Quick Fix for the Climate? Reviews in Fisheries Science and Aquaculture, https://doi.org/10.1080/23308249.2022.2048792

Finding ways to keep global warming under 1.5 degrees Celsius is urgent and will need a portfolio of solutions. Seaweeds are marine photosynthetic organisms that humans harvest either from the wild or farm, to be used in many applications and providing various ecosystem services. Large scale farming of seaweeds for absorbing carbon has lately been promoted as a climate “fix”. The major shortcomings of this argument relate to ...

Zhang, W., Belton, B., Edwards, P. et al. 2022. Aquaculture will continue to depend more on land than sea. Nature 603, E2–E4 (2022). https://doi.org/10.1038/s41586-021-04331-3

Aquaculture is a major producer of aquatic foods, contributes substantially to global food and nutrition security, and is likely to expand further in response to increasing demand from an increasingly populous and affluent world. Projections by Costello and colleagues suggest high growth potential for marine aquaculture (mariculture), alongside a relatively marginal increase in freshwater aquaculture. We contend that these pr...