Nutrition-Stress Interactions in Aquaculture: Addressing the Challenge of Climate Change

Aquaculture represents the fastest-growing sector in animal protein production for human consumption, outpacing other animal production industries in recent years. Historically, research in fish nutrition has prioritized the replacement of fish meal and fish oil with alternative ingredients to achieve nutritional adequacy, enhance production performance, and maintain organoleptic properties, primarily due to the high cost associated with feed ingredients.

However, the aquaculture sector is currently faced with significant challenges related to the rising incidence and severity of infectious disease outbreaks and the concurrent impact of husbandry stressors. Such disease outbreaks cause considerable economic losses, prompting increased attention towards improving fish welfare among producers, researchers, and consumers. Recent advances have highlighted the development and applications of non-invasive methodologies that effectively evaluate fish health and stress responses, enabling producers and researchers to better monitor welfare status. Nevertheless, an integrated approach considering nutritional strategies for stress prevention and mitigation in the context of complex situations such as pathological and environmental challenges under climate change remains insufficiently explored.

This Research Topic aims to deepen understanding of the interplay between nutrition and stress responses in aquatic animals, focusing particularly on the implications of climate change on fish and shellfish health. Specifically, it will explore nutritional strategies capable of reducing negative stress outcomes by considering key climate-change related factors such as elevated water temperatures, ocean acidification, and associated alterations in nutrient metabolism and absorption. Through this integrated research perspective, we aim to identify nutritional interventions and functional dietary components capable of increasing aquatic organisms' resilience and tolerance to stressful environmental conditions, ultimately contributing to a more sustainable and economically viable aquaculture sector.

To gather further insights within the scope of managing nutritional-stress interactions under climate change conditions, we welcome submissions covering themes that include, but are not limited to:

• Development and evaluation of sustainable aquafeeds and functional feed additives targeted at stress resilience
• Impact of climate-change driven environmental stresses (temperature rise, ocean acidification, hypoxia, etc.) on nutrient digestion and utilization in aquatic organisms
• Nutritional modulation of the immune system to improve disease resistance under stressful rearing conditions
• Nutritional advances addressing combined stressors such as husbandry or emerging contaminants under climate change scenarios
• Feeding regimen manipulation (frequency, amount, timing) aimed at reducing stress responses and enhancing animal welfare
• Application of non-invasive tools and biomarkers for the assessment of nutritional status, stress responses, and overall health and welfare improvements in response to dietary interventions
• Influence of nutritional strategies on stress physiology, considering both eustress and distress, and their implications for fish and shellfish health and production sustainability.

We encourage original research articles and review papers aligned with these topics.

Article types and fees

This Research Topic accepts the following article types, unless otherwise specified in the Research Topic description:

• Brief Research Report
• Case Report
• Clinical Trial
• Data Report
• Editorial
• FAIR² Data
• General Commentary
• Hypothesis and Theory
• Methods
• ... View all formats

Articles that are accepted for publication by our external editors following rigorous peer review incur a publishing fee charged to Authors, institutions, or funders.

Article types

This Research Topic accepts the following article types, unless otherwise specified in the Research Topic description:

• Brief Research Report
• Case Report
• Clinical Trial
• Data Report
• Editorial
• FAIR² Data
• General Commentary
• Hypothesis and Theory
• Methods
• Mini Review
• Opinion
• Original Research
• Perspective
• Policy and Practice Reviews
• Policy Brief
• Review
• Systematic Review
• Technology and Code

Keywords: functional diets, climate change, nutrients, antinutrients, stress, immune system, water quality, feed management

Important note: All contributions to this Research Topic must be within the scope of the section and journal to which they are submitted, as defined in their mission statements. Frontiers reserves the right to guide an out-of-scope manuscript to a more suitable section or journal at any stage of peer review.