Environmental Impacts of Seaweed Farming

Besides having high socio-economic value, seaweed cultivation also performs key ecosystem services and supports several Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs). As the demand for seaweed farming increases, it becomes necessary to develop sustainable farming practices. This requires a better understanding of how cultivation affects key ecosystem functions. It is also important to create strategies to balance the possible risks to the marine environment. This study aims to explain the ecological importance of seaweed cultivation in different parts of the marine ecosystem, such as primary productivity, carbon sequestration, climate change mitigation, and biodiversity enhancement. It also emphasized how long-term seaweed cultivation can significantly influence water quality parameters, such as changes in pH, dissolved oxygen levels, and nutrient availability in coastal waters. Seaweed farms can have both positive and negative effects on the surrounding marine communities, including seagrass, microalgae, benthic epifauna and infauna, plankton communities, and coral reefs. By affecting primary productivity and acting as a source of organic matter, seaweeds can create competition for resources, reduce oxygen levels, and alter nutrient availability. In addition, dense seaweed rafts can form canopies in the surface water that can potentially limit sunlight from reaching the seabed. They may also increase the risk of invasive species spreading in the marine ecosystem. Furthermore, commercial cultivation may significantly contribute to the generation of marine litter. Therefore, it is important to better understand these key ecological interactions to fill existing knowledge gaps about how seaweed cultivation affects ecosystem functioning, in order to develop sustainable farming practices.