Comparative assessment of Chinese mitten crab aquaculture in China: Spatiotemporal changes and trade-offs

The increasing human demand for high-quality animal protein has provided impetus for the development of aquaculture. Chinese mitten crab (Eriocheir sinensis) is a catadromous species rapidly being cultured in China but scientific literature documenting its life cycle environmental and economic consequences remains scarce. This study aims to address this gap by examining the spatio-temporal evolution of crab aquaculture in China since the 2000s and evaluating the environmental and economic characteristics along its life-cycle stages: megalopa, juvenile crab, and adult crab cultivation. The geostatistical analysis shows a more dispersed pattern of crab aquaculture nationally as crab grows, with coastal provinces that have brackish water for megalopa cultivation but wider spatial coverage for juvenile and adult crab cultivation. Our findings reveal that the production of 1 ton of live-weight crab results in 7.65 ton of CO₂ equivalent of greenhouse gas emissions, surpassing previous estimates for finfish fish production by approximately 50%. Most environmental pressures occur during the adult crab cultivation stage, with significant contributions from upstream processes such as electricity and feed production. By comparing between different production systems, our study shows that crab aquaculture in lake systems performs better than pond systems in terms of most global environmental impact categories and economic considerations. This work contributes to the existing literature by elucidating the spatio-temporal changes of crab aquaculture boom in China and constructing a representative life cycle data pool that broadens the benchmark knowledge on its environmental and economic characteristics. We highlight the trade-offs between environmental and economic performance as well as the balance between global and local environmental impacts to promote sustainable growth in the aquaculture industry.