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ARS Home » Northeast Area » Orono, Maine » National Cold Water Marine Aquaculture Center » Research » Publications at this Location » Publication #348523
Title: Does restoring oyster reefs restore oyster health?

Author
item BEN-HORIN, TAL - University Of Rhode Island
item BIDEGAIN, GORKA - University Of Southern Mississippi
item BURGE, COLLEN - University Of Maryland
item BUSHEK, DAVE - Rutgers University
item CARNEGIE, RYAN - Virginia Institute Of Marine Science
item GRONER, MAYA - Virginia Institute Of Marine Science
item HOFFMAN, EILEEN - Old Dominion University
item MUNROE, DAPHNE - Rutgers University
item POWELL, ERIC - University Of Southern Mississippi
item Proestou, Dina
item SCHROER, WILLIAM - University Of South Carolina

Submitted to: Meeting Abstract
Publication Type: Abstract Only
Publication Acceptance Date: 10/2/2017
Publication Date: N/A
Citation: N/A

Interpretive Summary:

Technical Abstract: American colonists found native oyster reefs so plentiful that oysters, with tobacco and spirits, completed the triumvirate of necessities, and their discarded shells paved the earliest colonial streets from New England down to the Gulf Coast. Industrialization and dredging, however, had devastating impacts on oyster beds, leaving oyster populations at a fraction of their abundance prior to European settlement. The ecosystem services lost with declining reefs have received much attention, but how has the decline in the abundance and extent of oysters influenced how these suspension-feeding hosts interact with endemic pathogens occurring in the water column? Here I will discuss a course of research integrating laboratory experiments, field observations, and epidemiological models to address how changes in oyster density and the community structure of oyster reefs influence the outcome of Dermo disease, including the role oyster aquaculture plays in amplifying or diluting disease impacts on wild oysters. This research aims to predict how enhancing oyster reefs through restoration activities will influence the outcome of disease in wild oyster populations.