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Aquaponics water use and nutrient cycling in a seawater-cooled controlled environment agriculture system

9 To demonstrate the water use efficiency and nutrient cycling of an aquaponics system 10 in combination with a seawater based evaporative cooling system, a pilot-scale aquaponics 11 unit was installed and operated for one year inside a controlled environment agriculture 12 building cooled by the evaporation of seawater on the campus of King Abdullah University 13 of Science and Technology in Thuwal, Saudi Arabia. Results collected from the operation 14 included crop water use, water quality parameters, dissolved ion concentrations, 15 outdoor/indoor climate data and crop output. Seawater-based evaporative cooling did not 16 provide adequate indoor temperatures for the cultivation of lettuce during the hot and 17 humid summer season. However, the combined aquaponics with seawater evaporative 18 cooling was effective for fall, winter, and spring cultivation with a mixed crop of lettuce and 19 tomatoes. Opposite to the vegetable production cycle, higher water temperature in the 20 summer favored the production of Sabaki tilapia during the warm summer season rather 21 than the cool winter season. Because of this dichotomy, the system showed promise for 22 management and nutrient balancing on an annual basis rather than on seasonal or daily 23 basis. From a fresh water use perspective, the average daily fresh water use by plants 24 totaled only 4.6 L day-1 m-2 or 19 L kg-1 of crop harvested during the peak winter/spring 25 growing season. Results demonstrated that an aquaponics system in combination with 26 seawater-based evaporative cooling is capable of saving ~90% of fresh water as compared 27 with traditional forms of agriculture in the region. 28 29