Fig 1.
Geographical distribution of aquaponic industry survey participants.
Maps show the number of respondents by country (A), and hobbyists (B), producers (C), and educators (D) by state within the United States. Maps were generated using Mapchart.net, licensed under CC BY 4.0.
Fig 2.
Survey respondent years of experience, weekly labor, system design, and funding sources.
Fig 3.
Number of U.S. survey respondents in each USDA plant hardiness zone.
Zone 1 represents the most polar and zone 13 is the most tropical climates. Numbers preset within the bars represent the total number of respondents in a given zone for each stakeholder group.
Table 1.
Aquaculture system components incorporated into aquaponic systems by hobbyists, producers, and educators.
Table 2.
Horticulture production system components for aquaponic hobbyists, producers, and educators.
Fig 4.
Size distribution of combined fish and plant area footprint of hobbyist, producer, and educator aquaponic systems.
Numbers above bars represent the number of respondents. Size designations are ‘micro’ = < 10 ft2; ‘mini’ = 10 to 50 ft2; ‘home garden/demonstration’ = 50 to 500 ft2; ‘pilot scale’ = 500 to 3,000 ft2; ‘small commercial’ = 3,000 to 22,500 ft2; ‘large commercial’ = 22,500 to 165,000 ft2; ‘industrial’ = >165,000 ft2.
Fig 5.
Frequency of product types sold by aquaponic hobbyists, producers, and educators.
Numbers present within the bars represent the total number of selections made by each stakeholder group.
Fig 6.
Frequency of fish species production by aquaponic hobbyists, producers, and educators.
Numbers present within the bars represent the total number of selections made by each stakeholder group. Note–“Other” fish species grown included white seabass, paddlefish, northern pike, crappie, pumpkinseed sunfish, heat-tolerant tiger trout, arctic char, white sturgeon, sleepy cod, tenca, snakehead, Clarias catfish, and mummichog.
Fig 7.
Frequency of plant species production by aquaponic hobbyists, producers, and educators.
Numbers present within the bars represent the total number of selections made by each stakeholder group. Note—“Other” crops grown by participants included aloe, banana, bay tree, beans, bok/pak choi, brewer’s hops, broccoli, cauliflower, celery, cherry tomato, chili pepper, corn, cilantro, duckweed, edible flowers, ginger, green beans, kale, luffa, mango, medicinal herbs, melons, mint, Momordica charantia, okra, papaya, parsley, peanuts, peas, pineapple, pumpkins, raspberry, rosemary, squash, stevia, Swiss chard, turmeric, ulva, water lilies, watercress, and yam.