Generating Heterogeneous Landscapes
Overlapping restoration of eelgrass and eastern oysters to compound positive community interactions
Seagrass populations have been disappearing worldwide at an accelerating pace over recent decades. In contrast, increasing global restoration efforts have had low rates of transplant success in target areas. Increasing the success of seagrass restoration will greatly benefit shoreline communities and increase the resiliency of coastal ecosystems in the changing climate. Higher landscape heterogeneity has demonstrated a positive relationship with seagrass meadow density and expansion. The inclusion of other habitat formers in seagrass restoration efforts may therefore increase transplant success. The eastern oyster and eelgrass share a suitability range within Long Island, NY coastal embayments however, restoration often occurs spatially isolated from one another. The additional landscape complexity of joining these restoration efforts may facilitate the recruitment of diverse community members through mechanisms such as facilitation cascades. Facilitation cascades describe a sequence of positive interactions between primary and secondary habitat-formers that ultimately diversify the inhabitant community through the provisioning of physical stress amelioration or relief from competition and predation. Inhabitant communities of the eelgrass/oyster regime reflect higher complexity in trophic structures which indicates further ecosystem resiliency in the heterogeneous landscape. With the intentional overlapping of historically separate restoration efforts, we expect vegetative eelgrass shoots transplanted in treatments adjacent to artificial eastern oyster structures to have more intense growth and survival compared to traditionally planted eelgrass.
Lab personnel: Flynn DeLany
Seagrass Metabolism Modulates Conditions for Important Calcifiers
Describing seagrass’ influence on hard clams, bay scallops, and corals
An early life history study was developed to characterize the biochemical underpinnings and microbial structure of Mercenaria mercenaria as it moves through its early-life phases. Larvae were measured for respiration, protein, lipid content as well as growth, ash-free dry weight, and microbiome. Juveniles were reciprocally transplanted across treatments to determine how the larval environment influences juvenile physiology. Juveniles were remeasured with an additional metric to determine carbohydrate utilization. Finally, animals were out planted along an organic matter gradient to assess performance in natural settings. The spatiotemporal calcification dynamics of juvenile bay scallops are studied using microbiome structure and δ11B to determine how the extracellular pH of the calcifying fluid (pHCF) changes across biogeochemically distinct habitats. Paired with community metabolism arrays and dissolved oxygen sensors, we can determine how the environment influences extracellular pH and use this as a proxy to determine physiological stress (i.e., how hard is the animal working to calcify). Meanwhile, the net ecosystem metabolism of tropical seagrass beds can influence coral physiology, calcification, dissolution, and disease prevalence. Using community metabolism sensor arrays, we quantify net calcification and net dissolution to determine how Thalassia testudinum modulates coral calcification and extracellular pH. Additionally, we use a paired manipulative experiment to understand how seagrass beds can “trap” coral diseases by using a spatiotemporal sampling design.
Lab personnel: Alyson Lowell
Peconic Estuary Program Aquaculture Project
Linking aquaculture operations to Peconic fish communities
A Suffolk County Aquaculture Lease Program (SCALP) for the Peconic Estuary established in 2009 was designed to promote slow growth in the industry, with new leases limited to 60 additional acres per year. Implementation of the lease program has increased private investment in shellfish aquaculture businesses, which, in turn, has expanded the marine-based economy of Suffolk County and created jobs that contribute to the economic growth and quality of life in East End communities. However, there remain questions about the potential impacts, harmful or beneficial, that shellfish aquaculture farms have on the health of the Peconic Estuary ecosystem. Working in collaboration with shellfish growers, we seek to assess how aquaculture operations impact wild fish communities to inform the management of SCALP. Shellfish aquaculture can provide a range of ecosystem services beyond food supply, such as creating habitat for fish species, augmenting the spawning potential of native shellfish populations, and improving water quality by increasing filter feeder abundance. To date, there have been no scientific investigations to evaluate the impact of aquaculture operation on ecosystem function and services in the Peconic Estuary. Shellfish aquaculture cages may act as artificial reefs, attracting greater numbers of fish than found on the bare bottom, but there is currently no data on which species are attracted and to what density, nor an understanding of why fish utilize these structures (e.g., food source, shelter from predation or refuge from current flow).
Lab personnel: Lucas Wong