ORIGINAL RESEARCH article
Front. Mar. Sci.
Sec. Marine Fisheries, Aquaculture and Living Resources
This article is part of the Research TopicTowards Sustainable Marine Aquaculture: Innovations and Eco-Friendly PracticesView all 14 articles
Acute and chronic effects of trackingsalinity on nitrification in a recirculating aquaculture system with açaí seeds (Euterpe oleracea) as biological media
Provisionally accepted
Deyselana Lima da Costa1
Bruno José Corecha Fernandes Eiras1
Jean Danilo da Silva Pereira1Adriele Carolina Raiol Rodrigues1Hayanna Lucy Barbosa Barros1Glauber David Almeida Palheta1
Nuno Filipe Alves Correia de Melo1Maria de Lourdes Souza Santos1João Felipe Nogueira Matias2
Fabio Carneiro Sterzelecki1*- 1Federal Rural University of the Amazon, Belém, Brazil
- 2Guamá Foundation, Belém, Brazil
Select one of your emails
You have multiple emails registered with Frontiers:
Notify me on publication
Please enter your email address:
If you already have an account, please login
You don't have a Frontiers account ? You can register here
The Blue Amazon represents an extensive coastal zone with high biodiversity and wide salinity variation, which poses challenges for marine fish farming, particularly regarding the efficiency of biofilters in recirculating aquaculture systems (RAS). In this context, açaí seeds (Euterpe oleracea), previously evaluated in freshwater, emerge as a promising alternative for use as filter media under different salinity conditions. The objective of this study was to evaluate the potential of açaí seeds as substrate in RAS biofilters, analyzing their acute and chronic impact on the physicochemical parameters of water and the removal of ammonia, nitrite and nitrate over 28 days. The experiment was conducted in six independent systems (three aquaria each), subjected to salinities of 0, 7, 14, 21, 28 and 35 ‰. After Acute (0, 20, 40, 60,80,100 and 120 minutes) and chronic (2,3,4,14,21 and 28 days) salinity change, water samples were collected to measure physicochemical quality and to assess nitrification efficiency and nitrogen compound removal. Higher oxygen consumption and ammonia clearance were observed at 0, 7 and 14 ‰ after 120 minutes of salinity change, while nitrate accumulation was significantly higher in freshwater. In long term, after 28 days, ammonia clearance was significantly lower at 35 ‰, though nitrate accumulation was not affected by salinity. The highest ammonia removal rates were recorded in the 0‰ and 7‰ treatments. The results demonstrate that açaí seeds are capable of removing ammonia after a few minutes and can sustain the growth of nitrifying bacteria under different salinity levels, although more efficiently in low salinity waters (seven times).
Keywords: Aquaculture, Salinity, Water Quality, Biofilter, Ras
Received: 13 Sep 2025; Accepted: 26 Nov 2025.
Copyright: © 2025 da Costa, Eiras, Pereira, Rodrigues, Barros, Palheta, de Melo, Santos, Matias and Sterzelecki. This is an open-access article distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution License (CC BY). The use, distribution or reproduction in other forums is permitted, provided the original author(s) or licensor are credited and that the original publication in this journal is cited, in accordance with accepted academic practice. No use, distribution or reproduction is permitted which does not comply with these terms.
* Correspondence: Fabio Carneiro Sterzelecki
Disclaimer: All claims expressed in this article are solely those of the authors and do not necessarily represent those of their affiliated organizations, or those of the publisher, the editors and the reviewers. Any product that may be evaluated in this article or claim that may be made by its manufacturer is not guaranteed or endorsed by the publisher.