Research Article Enhancing Ecoefficiency in Shrimp Farming through Interconnected Ponds

Copyright © 2015 Ramón Héctor Barraza-Guardado et al. This is an open access article distributed under the Creative Commons Attribution License, which permits unrestricted use, distribution, and reproduction in any medium, provided the original work is properly cited. The future development of shrimp farming needs to improve its ecoefficiency.Thepurpose of this studywas to evaluatewater quality, flows, and nitrogen balance and production parameters on a farm with interconnected pond design to improve the efficiency of the semi-intensive culture of Litopenaeus vannamei ponds. The study was conducted in 21 commercial culture ponds during 180 days at densities of 30–35 indm−2 and daily water exchange <2%. Our study provides evidence that by interconnecting ponds nutrient recycling is favored by promoting the growth of primary producers of the pond as chlorophyl