Loren D. Coen

Oyster Reefs at Risk and Recommendations for Conservation, Restoration, and Management

Native oyster reefs once dominated many estuaries, ecologically and economically. Centuries of resource extraction exacerbated by coastal degradation have pushed oyster reefs to the brink of functional extinction worldwide. We examined the condition of oyster reefs across 144 bays and 44 ecoregions; our comparisons of past with present abundances indicate that more than 90% of them have been lost in bays (70%) and ecoregions (63%). In many bays, more than 99% of oyster reefs have been lost and are functionally extinct. Overall, we estimate that 85% of oyster reefs have been lost globally. Most of the worlds remaining wild capture of native oysters (> 75%) comes from just five ecoregions in North America, yet the condition of reefs in these ecoregions is poor at best, except in the Gulf of Mexico. We identify many cost-effective solutions for conservation, restoration, and the management of fisheries and nonnative species that could reverse these oyster losses and restore reef ecosystem services.

Historical ecology with real numbers: past and present extent and biomass of an imperilled estuarine habitat

Historic baselines are important in developing our understanding of ecosystems in the face of rapid global change. While a number of studies have sought to determine changes in extent of exploited habitats over historic timescales, few have quantified such changes prior to late twentieth century baselines. Here, we present, to our knowledge, the first ever large-scale quantitative assessment of the extent and biomass of marine habitat-forming species over a 100-year time frame. We examined records of wild native oyster abundance in the United States from a historic, yet already exploited, baseline between 1878 and 1935 (predominantly 1885–1915), and a current baseline between 1968 and 2010 (predominantly 2000–2010). We quantified the extent of oyster grounds in 39 estuaries historically and 51 estuaries from recent times. Data from 24 estuaries allowed comparison of historic to present extent and biomass. We found evidence for a 64 per cent decline in the spatial extent of oyster habitat and an 88 per cent decline in oyster biomass over time. The difference between these two numbers illustrates that current areal extent measures may be masking significant loss of habitat through degradation.

CONTEMPORARY APPROACHES FOR SMALL-SCALE OYSTER REEF RESTORATION TO ADDRESS SUBSTRATE VERSUS RECRUITMENT LIMITATION: A REVIEW AND COMMENTS RELEVANT FOR THE OLYMPIA OYSTER, OSTREA LURIDA CARPENTER 1864

ABSTRACT Reefs and beds formed by oysters such as the Eastern oyster, Crassostrea virginica and the Olympia oyster, Ostrea lurida Carpenter 1864† were dominant features in many estuaries throughout their native ranges. Many of these estuaries no longer have healthy, productive reefs because of impacts from destructive fishing, sediment accumulation, pollution, and parasites. Once valued primarily as a fishery resource, increasing attention is being focused today on the array of other ecosystem services that oysters and the reefs they form provide in United States coastal bays and estuaries. Since the early 1990s efforts to restore subtidal and intertidal oyster reefs have increased significantly, with particular interest in small-scale community-based projects initiated most often by nongovernmental organizations (NGOs). To date, such projects have been undertaken in at least 15 US states, for both species of dominant native oysters along the United States coast. Community-based restoration practitioners have used a broad range of nonmutually exclusive approaches, including: (1) oyster gardening of hatchery-produced oysters; (2) deployment of juvenile to adult shellfish (“broodstock”) within designated areas for stock enhancement; and (3) substrate enhancement using natural or recycled man-made materials loose or in “bags” designed to enhance local settlement success. Many of these approaches are inspired by fishery-enhancement efforts of the past, though are implemented with different outcomes in mind (ecological services vs. fishery outcomes). This paper was originally presented at the first West Coast Restoration Workshop in 2006 in San Rafael, California and is intended to summarize potential approaches for small-scale restoration projects, including some emerging methods, and highlight the logistical benefits and limitations of these approaches. Because the majority of the past efforts have been with C. viriginica, we use those examples initially to highlight efforts with the intent of enlightening current west coast United States efforts with Ostrea lurida. We also discuss site-specific characteristics including “recruitment bottlenecks” and “substrate limitation” as criteria for identifying the most appropriate approaches to use for small-scale restoration projects. Many of the included “lessons-learned” from the smaller-scale restoration projects being implemented today can be used to inform not only large-scale estuary wide efforts to restore C. virginica, but also the relatively nascent efforts directed at restoring the United States west coasts native Olympia oyster, Ostrea lurida.

A NEW IN SITU METHOD FOR MEASURING SESTON UPTAKE BY SUSPENSION-FEEDING BIVALVE MOLLUSCS

Abstract The most commonly used methods for measuring the amount of seston removed from the water column (uptake) by populations of suspension-feeding bivalve molluscs involve taking discrete water samples followed by laboratory analyses. Here we describe a new method based on in situ fluorometry that provides rapid measurement of seston removal rates. The new system is comprised of two identical units, each consisting of an in situ fluorometer, data logger and peristaltic pump with plastic tube attached to a deployment device. The deployment device allows precise placement of the fluorometer probe and intake end of the plastic tube so that in situ fluorescence (chlorophyll a) can be measured and water can be sampled for seston analyses in the laboratory from the same height. The typical setup involves placing one unit upstream and the other downstream of the study area and sampling the water at periodic intervals. Changes in seston concentration are revealed in the field by the fluorometers, and the sampled water can be analyzed in the laboratory for various seston parameters. Comparisons of the in situ data with data from laboratory analyses of pumped water samples were made for three species at four study sites: the eastern oyster (Crassostrea virginica), hard clam (Mercenaria mercenaria), and blue mussel (Mytilus edulis). Comparisons of measured upstream versus downstream seston concentrations indicated significant (t-tests, P < 0.05) differences (uptake) for six of eight trials based on in situ fluorometry, but only marginally significant (P < 0.10) differences at two of the four trials using laboratory chlorophyll a measurements. These data demonstrate that compared with sampling methods requiring laboratory analyses, the new in situ method provides much more rapid quantitative assessments and may provide more accurate estimates.

The ecology, evolution, impacts and management of host-parasite interactions of marine molluscs.

Molluscs are economically and ecologically important components of aquatic ecosystems. In addition to supporting valuable aquaculture and wild-harvest industries, their populations determine the structure of benthic communities, cycling of nutrients, serve as prey resources for higher trophic levels and, in some instances, stabilize shorelines and maintain water quality. This paper reviews existing knowledge of the ecology of host-parasite interactions involving marine molluscs, with a focus on gastropods and bivalves. It considers the ecological and evolutionary impacts of molluscan parasites on their hosts and vice versa, and on the communities and ecosystems in which they are a part, as well as disease management and its ecological impacts. An increasing number of case studies show that disease can have important effects on marine molluscs, their ecological interactions and ecosystem services, at spatial scales from centimeters to thousands of kilometers and timescales ranging from hours to years. In some instances the cascading indirect effects arising from parasitic infection of molluscs extend well beyond the temporal and spatial scales at which molluscs are affected by disease. In addition to the direct effects of molluscan disease, there can be large indirect impacts on marine environments resulting from strategies, such as introduction of non-native species and selective breeding for disease resistance, put in place to manage disease. Much of our understanding of impacts of molluscan diseases on the marine environment has been derived from just a handful of intensively studied marine parasite-host systems, namely gastropod-trematode, cockle-trematode, and oyster-protistan interactions. Understanding molluscan host-parasite dynamics is of growing importance because: (1) expanding aquaculture; (2) current and future climate change; (3) movement of non-native species; and (4) coastal development are modifying molluscan disease dynamics, ultimately leading to complex relationships between diseases and cultivated and natural molluscan populations. Further, in some instances the enhancement or restoration of valued ecosystem services may be contingent on management of molluscan disease. The application of newly emerging molecular tools and remote sensing techniques to the study of molluscan disease will be important in identifying how changes at varying spatial and temporal scales with global change are modifying host-parasite systems.