This project team will leverage a well established collaborative group, GTM Reserve’s Oyster and Water Quality Task Force and engage additional users, including state agencies, nonprofits and the oyster fishery community that are working to improve water quality in Guana River Estuary. To assist with the development of restoration and management plans, this project will: 1) identify sources of nutrients to the Guana River Estuary, and determine how nutrient loads from the lake to the river are affected by hydrology and land use; 2) map the current distribution of shellfish communities; 3) quantify filtration and nitrogen removal by shellfish; and 4) conduct field and lab experiments to assess how water quality affects shellfish health, and also how shellfish affect water quality in the estuary. In collaboration with project end users, the project team will generate a suite of research products, including a coupled hydrodynamic-biogeochemical model for Guana Lake and monitoring and restoration recommendations. Project findings will be shared through a stakeholder workshop exploring ways to reduce nutrient inputs into the estuary, a training program for using shellfish for water quality remediation, and peer-reviewed and outreach publications.

To build communication, coordination, and information sharing among scientists and restoration practitioners, this project established a coastwide network from Baja California to British Columbia, the Native Olympia Oyster Collaborative. The project team synthesized past restoration projects, developed an experimental design for future research, and created educational and outreach materials that convey the importance of native oyster restoration on the Pacific coast. These efforts engaged communities in Olympia oyster restoration, provided tools to enhance future restoration outcomes, and strengthened connections among researchers and practitioners to support ongoing collaboration. This catalyst project was funded by NOAA through the National Estuarine Research Reserve System Science Collaborative to advance collaborative science. It did not produce any new data.

Oysters are the tiny superheroes of coastal environments. They enhance water quality, create habitat, and protect shorelines from storms and erosion. Along the Pacific Coast, native oysters are in decline, due in part to sedimentation, inadequate protection, and unsustainable harvests. Planning for a future that includes healthy native oyster populations depends on our ability to select sites for restoration that not only account for these challenges but also the impacts of a changing climate.

We used a quantitative sampling device to compare nekton use among high-relief live oyster reef, vegetated marsh edge Spartina alterniflora, and nonvegetated bottom habitat types.

The Eastern oyster (Crassostrea virginica) is a keystone species in northeast Florida estuaries, including the Guana Tolomato Matanzas (GTM) Reserve. However, scientists, managers and oyster harvesters are concerned about the long-term persistence and viability of local populations. In the GTM Reserve, water quality issues are causing some areas to be closed for harvesting, which could be intensifying harvesting pressure in remaining open areas. Other factors, such as predation, disease, and increased salinity, can also slow growth or kill oysters. This complicated situation recently led stakeholders and reserve staff to establish the GTM Oyster Water Quality Task Force in order to identify causes and collaboratively address the region’s oyster challenges.

This multi-reserve catalyst project compared established and emerging methods for assessing intertidal oyster reef community structure and ecosystem function. With their partners, the project catalyzed a strong community of practice in the Southeastern U.S. to support management efforts related to oyster reef conservation and the advancement of monitoring protocol. The Project Intertidal oyster reefs provide key habitat for a diverse and productive community of estuarine fauna, yet have declined drastically due to overfishing and disease outbreaks. With increased conservation and restoration efforts for intertidal oyster reefs, there is a need for more efficient ways of assessing oyster reefs as well as more holistic understandings of how oyster reefs function as habitats for other estuarine animals. However, assessing the ecosystem benefits of intertidal oyster reefs is challenging because the reefs occupy a dynamic tidal environment characterized by highly turbid water. Established sampling techniques for assessing intertidal oyster reefs are labor intensive and therefore difficult to replicate at multiple sites, limiting the ecological information they can provide, especially at large scales. In contrast, emerging techniques prove promising for examining intertidal oyster reef community structure and ecosystem function. Collaborating with four reserves and five universities, this project compared established sampling techniques for assessing intertidal oyster reefs with four emerging methods that each provide unique ecological information: 1. High-Resolution Acoustic Imaging 2. Stable Isotope Analysis 3. eDNA Metabarcoding 4. Oyster Disease Assays The project team applied these methods alongside traditional methods for collection of free-swimming marine organisms via nets/traps at four reserves in the southeastern U.S. Afterwards, the team convened with their partners and intended users to examine the results and evaluate the potential utility and feasibility of incorporating the emerging methods into their research and monitoring programs. Users overwhelmingly expressed that expanded application of these emerging techniques could improve the assessment of the function of multiple different oyster reef types. The results of this Catalyst project, along with the collaborative network that project has built, bolsters technical capacity at reserves and state agencies to understand the function of critical habitats.

Pint-sized with razor-sharp edges, Olympia oysters once flourished along Oregon’s rugged coast. Millions of them formed extensive beds that blanketed the tidal zones of places like Coos Bay and Yaquina bays, where they provided food and income for people and habitat for wildlife. In recent years, over-harvesting, development, sedimentation, pollution, dredging, and forest fires have all played a role in the dramatic decline of this native shellfish that, in many places, has become locally extinct. Bringing the “Oly” back is a priority for natural resource managers, scientists, shellfish farmers, and recreationists.

Seston data with phytoplankton and size fractioned non-living particles counted by flow cytomter from Penebscot River, Maine in April, May, and June of 2015. High frequent chlorophyll, dissolved oxygen, pH, temperature and salinity data collected by Sondes in Bronx, New York in the Fall of 2012.

Coastal researchers, fishermen, fishery managers and educators teamed up to understand changes in shrimp populations in response to shifting environmental conditions in estuaries. The Project Shrimping has deep cultural and economic ties to the South Carolina and Georgia coasts, and the southeast US Atlantic coast region as a whole. However, over the past two decades, commercial shrimp landings have been highly variable. Fishery management agencies, extension offices, and several southeastern Reserves have identified the need to better understand how shrimp populations are responding to changing environmental conditions, including warmer winters and altered salinity regimes. To do this work, a diverse team with members from universities, fishery management agencies, fisheries extension offices, and Reserves came together to form the Lowcountry Shrimp Collaborative. The Lowcountry Shrimp Collaborative used a comprehensive approach to examine how environmental conditions in estuaries are affecting abundance and timing of shrimp populations throughout the region through examination of each stage of the shrimp life cycle. Together, the Collaborative: Analyzed and synthesized numerous ongoing, long-term (30+ years) datasets on multiple shrimp life history stages (postlarval, juvenile, sub-adult, adult, commercially harvested) and environmental conditions (water quality, including System-Wide Monitoring Program data); Conducted field sampling targeting shrimp and their prey in salt marsh creeks during spring and summer seasons, over two years, at three southeast Reserves; Ran controlled seawater laboratory experiments to understand the impacts of competition for limited resources between shrimp species during their overlapping periods of estuarine residency; and, Interviewed commercial shrimpers based in Georgia and South Carolina, to better understand historical changes in, and perceptions of environmental impacts on, the shrimp industry in the southeast US. The project found that estuarine water temperature is rising across the region, mainly driven by increases during winter months. Warming temperatures can alter the life histories of shrimp, including shifting body size, altering the timing of migratory cues, and modifying habitat use. These warmer temperatures are also resulting in longer shrimping seasons with shrimpers often able to continue harvesting well into January. These results were confirmed by observations shared by shrimpers, who joined for a project wrap-up event where the team presented results and engaged in lively discussions about research needs and opportunities for collaboration between researchers, managers, and the industry.

This project will explore whether nitrogen reduction actions have improved eelgrass resilience and the role that initial eelgrass recovery could play in further reducing the impacts of nitrogen and other stressors. The project combines hydrodynamic modeling and new field observations to delineate the relationships among nitrogen loading, in-situ nitrogen processing, sediment dynamics, light, and eelgrass resilience. Outputs include habitat connectivity estimates, likely stressor-response scenarios, charrettes, education curricula, and associated reports and presentations. Building on existing regional collaborations and efforts to link the science with decision making, this work will directly inform the adaptive management plans developed by communities, as well as future modifications to the EPA permit requirements.