The search for healthier protein sources and the growing demand for food by an increasing world population require aquaculture systems to not only be economically and technologically viable, but also sustainable. Among other methods, emergy synthesis is a powerful tool to assess the sustainability of production systems in a biophysical perspective. However, applications of emergy synthesis on aquaculture systems are seldomly found in the scientific literature. This work provides a literature review on emergy synthesis applied to aquaculture systems and discusses its constraints and potentials. The sixteen papers published between 2000‐2020 support the adoption of polycultures more than monocultures and highlight the importance of feed (4–70%) in the total emergy required by aquaculture systems, which require efforts for natural food. Methodological aspects of emergy synthesis applied in aquaculture systems that deserve attention by developers and analysts to avoid mistakes and erroneous conclusions were identified and discussed, and we propose some ways to solve them. These aspects are mainly related to inaccurate unit emergy values for water and feed, dubious procedures in quantifying and classifying water as renewable or non‐renewable resources, and the need to recognize the importance in accounting for ecosystem services and disservices. After overcoming these methodological inconsistencies, we foresee that emergy synthesis has potential political implications in supporting most sustainable aquaculture systems through economic (tax reduction and loans with reduced interests) and political (green labels) incentives. All these policies are important to achieve the ultimate goals of the United Nations’ Agenda 2030.

中文翻译：

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水产养殖的能效综合：其制约因素和潜力的综述

为了寻求更健康的蛋白质来源以及世界人口的增长对食物的需求不断增长，要求水产养殖系统不仅在经济和技术上可行，而且具有可持续性。除其他方法外，能值合成是一种从生物物理角度评估生产系统可持续性的强大工具。然而，在科学文献中很少发现能值合成在水产养殖系统中的应用。这项工作提供了关于将能值合成应用于水产养殖系统的文献综述，并讨论了其制约因素和潜力。2000年至2020年之间发表的16篇论文支持采用混养而不是单养，并强调了饲料（4-70％）在水产养殖系统所需总能值中的重要性，这需要自然食品的努力。在水产养殖系统中应用能值合成的方法论方面应得到开发商和分析人员的重视，以避免并避免错误和错误的结论，并对此进行了讨论，并提出了解决这些问题的一些方法。这些方面主要涉及水和饲料的单位能值不准确，将水量化和分类为可再生或不可再生资源的可疑程序，以及需要认识到对生态系统服务和损害进行会计处理的重要性。克服了这些方法上的矛盾之后，我们预见到，能值综合在通过经济（减税和利息减少的贷款）和政治（绿色标签）激励来支持大多数可持续水产养殖系统方面具有潜在的政治意义。