| The food supply system based on land-based protein products brings enormous resource pressure and negative environmental impacts.Reducing environmental impact through dietary structure adjustment has become a new aspect for environmental decision making.Mariculture products have the characteristics of low environmental impactsand high nutrient content,which makes them a promising substitute for land-based protein products.China is the world’s largest seafood producer,accounting for 66%mariculture products of global production in 2018.However,different types of mariculture products have different nutrient composition and environmental impacts,and ignoring these heterogeneities may mislead the decision-making of mariculture development in China.There is also a lack of detailed comparison on their nutritional qualify and environmental impacts between mariculture products and land-based protein products.Therefore,there is an urgent need to jointly evluate environment-nutrition impacts of different mariculture products in China and their replacement potential with landbased proteins.This study quantified the environmental impacts and nutritional quality of 28 mariculture products from 4 different categories(shellfish,fish,crustacean,other classes)in China using environmental index evaluation system and nutrition evaluation model,as well as multiple datasets including water footprint database,nitrogen footprint database and nutrient composition database.Compared with 7 representative land-based protein products,a comprehensive assessment of each product on nutritional and environmental performance was carried out.In this study,three demand scenarios for mariculture products in 2050 were set to explore the development potential of mariculture products and replacement potential of landbased products under different scenarios.Our nutritional and environmental assessments showed that mariculture products are generally more environmentally friendly and nutritious than terrestrial protein products,but this is not the case for all mariculture products.Among 28 kinds of mariculture products,the nutrition-friendly products are mainly shellfish and some marine fish.Diet should be the first choice for environment-nutrition win-win relationship between soybean,sea cucumber,shellfish(excluding pen shell),some marine fish(cobia,American red fish,seriola,flounder,sea bream,seabass),and some crustaceans(portunid,sugpo prawn).The current production structure of mariculture can be optimized by expanding the production of nutrient-rich mariculture products with low environmental impact.Products with high environmental impact and low nutrient density also exist in mariculture products.The mud crab and penaeus japonicus belonging to crustaceans have a higher environmental impact than most of the products studied(only lower than mutton and beef).The nutritional performance of pen shell,some marine fish(grouper,turbot,large yellow croaker and pufferfish),some crustaceans(penaeus japonicus,penaeus vannamei),jellyfish and urchin are lower than the average nutritional quality of all the products.In terms of price and yield,shellfish has a relatively low price among seafood and is more affordable for consumers,but there is still a gap on yield that needs to be improved.The results of different production scenarios in the future suggest that mariculture products as substitutes to land-based protein products will be limited by their upper uptake limit,yield and cost.Considering micronutrient richness,environmental costs,and economic costs under three future(2050)yield scenarios,we find that soybean is the best choice for omega-3 fatty acids and vitamin B2 supplementation,with lower yield increase rates and environmenteconomic costs.Supplementation with vitamin A deficiency should be preferred in egg.Mariculture products are the best choice to fill the micronutrient gap of calcium,selenium and vitamin B12,and contribute more to the vitamin B12 and selenium gap.The major contributors to micronutrients in mariculture products are most shellfish(clam,scallop,mussel),a few types of crustacean(penaeus vannamei),and a few types of marine fishes(large yellow croaker,grouper)and sea cucumber.However,some micronutrients(copper,zinc,iron,selenium,etc.)in shellfish are too high,and the resulting upper limit of daily intake limits shellfish development to some extent.This study provided a detailed list of environmental footprint and nutrient density assessment for 28 mariculture products in China,and quantified the alternative potential and environment-economic costs of replacing land-based products by mariculture products in filling the micronutrient gap.This study provides theoretical reference for formulating targeted production policies,reducing environmental impact,meeting food nutrition needs and reducing consumption costs,and explore systematic data and methodological support for promoting sustainable development of mariculture industry in China. |
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