Ecosystem services related to oyster restoration

Coen, Loren D.; Brumbaugh, R. Dan; Bushek, David; Grizzle, Ray; Luckenbach, Mark W.; Posey, Martin H.; Powers, Sean P.; Tolley, S. Gregory

doi:10.3354/meps341303

Cited by 495 publications

(339 citation statements)

References 29 publications

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“…Restoration of water quality resulted in the return of >110 fish species to the Thames estuary (Figure 3b) [13] and the recovery of intertidal macroalgal communities from 1984 to 2006 after implementing sewage treatment in Bilbao, Spain [66]. Cessation of exploitation in marine protected areas (MPAs) around the world resulted in significant increases in species richness of fishes and invertebrates [15,22] and habitat restoration of oyster reefs has enhanced associated species diversity [67].…”

Section: Species Diversitymentioning

confidence: 99%

Recovery of marine animal populations and ecosystems

Lotze¹,

Coll²,

Magera³

et al. 2011

Trends in Ecology & Evolution

352

316

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Many marine populations and ecosystems have experienced strong historical depletions, yet reports of recoveries are increasing. Here, we review the growing research on marine recoveries to reveal how common recovery is, its magnitude, timescale and major drivers. Overall, 10-50% of depleted populations and ecosystems show some recovery, but rarely to former levels of abundance. In addition, recovery can take many decades for long-lived species and complex ecosystems. Major drivers of recovery include the reduction of human impacts, especially exploitation, habitat loss and pollution, combined with favorable life-history and environmental conditions. Awareness, legal protection and enforcement of management plans are also crucial. Learning from historical recovery successes and failures is essential for implementing realistic conservation goals and promising management strategies.A new focus on recovery An increasing number of studies have reported strong declines in marine animal populations and the degradation of ocean ecosystems over past decades and centuries around the world [1][2][3][4][5][6][7], leading to a widespread perception of empty oceans and polluted waters. Yet, throughout history, humans have responded to declining resource abundance and ecosystem degradation by implementing management and conservation measures. Some of these have been successful and resulted in recovery, whereas others have failed [3,8,9].Therefore, an important question to science and management is: how common is recovery among depleted populations and degraded ecosystems in the ocean? Today, many marine mammal, bird, reptile and fish populations are at low abundance, and several species are endangered or extinct on regional or global scales [5,[10][11][12]. However, despite long periods of intense human impacts, most marine species persist and some populations do show signs of recovery [3,8,9]. Similarly, many coastal habitats, including wetlands, seagrass beds, mangrove and kelp forests, and oyster and coral reefs, have been severely reduced or degraded [2][3][4]6], yet partial recovery has been achieved in some regions in response to protection and pollution controls [3,13]. Restoration attempts at an ecosystem level have often been followed by the return and recovery of former species assemblages and ecosystem functions [13][14][15][16][17], but some ecosystems have remained in an altered state [18]. Such successes could serve as important guides for efforts to prevent further biodiversity loss and enhance future recoveries.Despite a growing number of case studies on the recovery of specific populations or ecosystems, an overview of the general patterns and drivers of marine recoveries over historical timescales is lacking. A recent review on the recovery of damaged ecosystems found that many terrestrial and marine ecosystems can recover on timescales of a few years to a few decades after major perturbations [19]. However, most case studies in the review, especially among marine and brackish examples, included small, short-...

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Section: Species Diversitymentioning

confidence: 99%

Recovery of marine animal populations and ecosystems

Lotze¹,

Coll²,

Magera³

et al. 2011

Trends in Ecology & Evolution

352

316

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“…In addition to direct revenue from oyster harvesting, oysters provide hard substrate for sessile organisms, habitat complexity and refuge for small mobile organisms, and attenuation of wave energy for shoreline protection [1,2]. Furthermore, the filtering capacity of oysters is thought to improve water clarity and influence the structure of estuarine ecosystems with respect to recycling of organic matter and nutrients [3][4][5], benthicpelagic coupling, and energy flow to the microbial loop [6,7].…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Changes in Sediment Characteristics upon Oyster Reef Restoration, NE Florida, USA

Southwell¹,

Veenstra²,

Adams³

et al. 2017

J Coast Zone Manag

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debated [11,12,14,15], but less research has been devoted to the effect of oyster reefs on the surrounding sediment. Reefs act to attenuate wave energy, possibly facilitating deposition of fine sediment [8]; this process may work in concert with oyster filtration to increase light penetration that may then shift ecosystems towards more benthic primary producers [6]. Finer particles and much higher organic matter (OM) content in oyster-associated sediments suggests a substantial role for carbon and nutrient removal by burial [8,17] and benthic algal uptake where light penetration is sufficient [6]. However, mesocosm experiments show that physical factors such as bottom shear can influence sediment resuspension and benthic micro-algal biomass, making the system more complex and the likelihood of OM burial versus remineralization more difficult to predict [7]. Several recent studies suggest that sediments associated with natural and restored oyster reefs have high rates of denitrification and may thus represent important sites for long term nitrogen removal [17][18][19][20]. Whole-creek studies and some mesocosm studies do not parse the contributions of the oysters themselves versus the associated sediments but rather consider the reef-sediment system as a whole [3,5,17]. Indeed, it is difficult to separate these effects because the presence of the reef will likely alter the depositional environment and ultimately the biogeochemistry of the surrounding sediment.

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“…Coen et al, 2007;Hatcher et al, 1994;Newell et al, 2005) by consuming seston from the water column and depositing feces and pseudofeces on the sediment surface, thus causing an organic enrichment of the surrounding sediments Krone et al, 2013) especially by increasing the total dissolved nitrogen (Hatcher et al, 1994). These changes in sediment chemistry can affect benthic communities by increasing or decreasing individual species abundances (Dauer et al, 2000) or by changing entire species compositions (Kaspar et al, 1985).…”

Section: Tablementioning

confidence: 99%

“…The loss of many primordial estuarine habitats such as mussel beds and seagrass beds has impaired important ecosystem services and benefits (Coen et al, 2007;Barbier et al, 2011). Many of these services, such as water purification by filter feeders and seagrass beds, or the availability of nursery habitats provided by biogenic reefs, have been severely reduced or even eliminated over the last centuries (cf.…”

Section: Tablementioning

confidence: 99%

“…For example, the annual benefit provided by estuaries for human welfare is estimated alone for nutrient cycling at 21,100 US$ ha À1 yr À1 (Costanza, 1997), the highest estimate in their study which ranks before all seagrass and algae beds combined (19,002 US$ ha À1 yr À1 ). Likewise, water filtration by estuarine mussels and clams is an important ecosystem service (Coen et al, 2007;Barbier et al, 2011). For example, laboratory studies have indicated that mussel filtration can significantly decrease chlorophyll-a concentrations (e.g.…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

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Artificial structures in sediment-dominated estuaries and their possible influences on the ecosystem

Wetzel

Scholle

Teschke

2014

Marine Environmental Research

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a b s t r a c tArtificial substrates are omnipresent today in most estuaries mostly in form of massive rip-rap used for groynes and jetties. In the Weser estuary, Germany, 60% of the shoreline is covered with such artificial substrates while, natural rocky substrate is lacking, as in all Wadden Sea estuaries. This large quantity of artificial substrates may be colonized by a benthic hard-substrate community which differs from the local natural soft-substrate assemblage. In this study we examined species compositions, abundances, biomass, and numbers of species of subtidal benthic communities on groynes and in the natural habitat, the sediment, along the salinity gradient of the Weser estuary. Species composition changed on both substrates significantly with salinity and was also significantly different between the substrates. In a comparison with the sediment, the groynes did not provide any benefit for non-indigenous nor for endangered species in terms of abundance, biomass, and number of species, but represent habitats with higher total abundances and biomass; though some non-indigenous species even occurred exclusively on groynes. In particular, groynes supported filter-feeding organisms which play an important role by linking benthic and pelagic food webs. The dominance of the suspension feeders affects crucial estuarine ecosystem services and may have important implications for the estuarine management by altering the estuarine ecological quality status. Hence, artificial substrates should be considered in future conservation planning and in ecological quality monitoring of the benthic fauna according to the European Water Framework Directive.

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Ecosystem services related to oyster restoration

Cited by 495 publications

References 29 publications

Recovery of marine animal populations and ecosystems

Recovery of marine animal populations and ecosystems

Changes in Sediment Characteristics upon Oyster Reef Restoration, NE Florida, USA

Artificial structures in sediment-dominated estuaries and their possible influences on the ecosystem

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