University of Oxford
11a Mansfield Rd
OX1 3SZ
UK
Elwyn Jones
Background
I have enjoyed my time spent studying biology at Oxford so far very much. The experience has helped me to better comprehend the wonder and value of biodiversity on our planet, and has confirmed my desire to devote my academic work towards conservation biology. My master’s work will incorporate my interests in salmonid biology, aquatic conservation, and sustainable food production, as I will be studying the environmental performance of European salmon farming systems.
Research Interests
From a purely biological perspective, my passion lies in aquatic ecology, stemming from my fly fishing hobby. Unfortunately, aquatic ecosystems have already been severely damaged by direct exploitation, and yet global demand for seafood is still predicted to almost double by 2050. If demand is to be met, seafood production must be subsidised by the aquaculture industry, which has already occurred to a great extent, as aquaculture production now accounts for approximately half of the world’s fish supply. Although aquaculture-driven fisheries displacement is an exciting prospect, the rapid growth of the industry has introduced new anthropogenic threats to aquatic ecosystems, and in some instances may do more harm than good. My research interests are therefore centred around quantifying and lessening aquaculture’s impacts upon biodiversity at both local and global scales.
Current Research
I have chosen to focus my masters project on the Atlantic salmon (Salmo salar), a farmed species that has grown to become a global supercommodity, despite only having first been farmed successfully in Norway in the early 1970s. The salmon farming industry is localised to nations with suitably cold waters, with Norway, Chile, and Scotland being the top three producers worldwide. In all three countries, production has dramatically increased over the past half-century, without much consideration for the health of the aquatic ecosystems in which farms reside. Ambitions to expand salmon farming operations over the coming decades must therefore occur alongside constant environmental impact assessment (EIA), in order to improve current farming practices and protect local biodiversity.
The most widely applied EIA methodology with regard to food production systems is Life Cycle Assessment (LCA), and within the aquaculture LCA literature, salmonids are collectively the most studied species group. A review of existing salmon production LCAs is therefore a suitable approach to determine the life cycle processes that reliably predict variation in sustainability between farms. A limited number of similar reviews have been produced, all of which highlight a lack of consistency in the methodology used within each stage of an ISO-standardised LCA.
As part of my review, I will reprocess life cycle inventory (LCI) data from individual studies using the LCA modelling tools provided by the HESTIA platform (https://www.hestia.earth). This will yield harmonised life cycle impact assessment (LCIA) outputs, which hold the potential to highlight previously obscured trends in sustainability, and are better suited for cross-study comparisons. My overarching aim is to draw attention to potentially avoidable farming practices that are hindering the sustainability of salmon farms, in the hope that they can be addressed.