{"id":21857,"date":"2016-02-10T10:07:15","date_gmt":"2016-02-10T15:07:15","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/ncseagrant.ncsu.edu\/?p=6300"},"modified":"2024-05-21T15:54:15","modified_gmt":"2024-05-21T19:54:15","slug":"clear-waters-ahead-for-oyster-restoration","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/ncseagrant.ncsu.edu\/coastwatch\/clear-waters-ahead-for-oyster-restoration\/","title":{"rendered":"Clear Waters Ahead for Oyster Restoration"},"content":{"rendered":"

By KATHLEEN ONOREVOLE<\/h3>\n

Posted Feb. 10, 2016<\/em><\/p>\n

Kathleen Onorevole is a master’s\u00a0student in <\/em>Michael Piehler\u2019s lab<\/em><\/a> at the <\/em>University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill’s Institute of Marine Sciences<\/em><\/a>\u00a0in Morehead City. She studies the impact of ecological restoration on nutrient cycling.<\/em><\/p>\n

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An exposed oyster reef borders salt marsh grass at one of my research sites. Photo by Kathleen Onorevole.<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

There are two types of people who care that the word February includes the letter \u201cr\u201d: spelling bee contestants and oyster enthusiasts.<\/p>\n

Whatever your opinions on spelling, it\u2019s hard to argue that oysters are d-e-l-i-c-i-o-u-s.<\/p>\n

They\u2019re also timely: We’re in North Carolina’s wild oyster season, which traditionally had been identified as months with an “r” in the name. It’s easy to appreciate oysters at suppertime, but this shellfish is important to our coasts for reasons beyond the culinary.<\/p>\n

As a graduate student working in eastern North Carolina, I\u2019ve been lucky enough to experience this firsthand.<\/p>\n

To understand some of the benefits of oysters, it\u2019s useful to start with their food source: algae. Marine algae use nitrogen in the water to grow. When it rains, stormwater runoff delivers high concentrations of nitrogen to coastal waters from sources such as fertilizer. Just as the nitrogen in fertilizer helps grass and crops flourish, it can promote rapid algae growth, leading to a scenario called an algae bloom.<\/p>\n

Have you ever had a trip to the lake spoiled by green slime? If so, you can appreciate that happy algae does not equate to happy humans. Blooms are smelly, can lead to widespread fish death, and can even contain toxic compounds. It\u2019s bad news \u2014 until you add oysters!<\/p>\n

Oysters are filter feeders, meaning that they consume algae as they filter water over their gills. Not only do oysters limit blooms by eating algae, they remove some of the nitrogen that can trigger those blooms in the first place. In 2010, North Carolina Sea Grant funded an oyster research project<\/a> in Michael Piehler’s lab at University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill’s Institute of Marine Sciences. Ashley Smyth, who was a doctoral student at the time, also was\u00a0involved in the project.<\/p>\n

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The large plastic tubes are used to collect sediment cores. Photo by Luke Dodd.<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

Before Piehler and Smyth\u2019s work, researchers knew that coastal habitats such as\u00a0salt marshes could remove nitrogen from the water through a process known as denitrification. Piehler and Smyth were the first to demonstrate that oyster reefs also could facilitate denitrification.<\/p>\n

Meanwhile, another Piehler lab student was looking for denitrification in an unusual place: marsh fungi. As a Coastal Research Fellow through Sea Grant and the N.C. Coastal Reserve, doctoral\u00a0student Teri O’Meara found that fungi in marsh sediments play an important role<\/a> in overall salt marsh denitrification.<\/p>\n

Piehler leveraged the successes of these Sea Grant-funded projects to obtain a grant from the National Science Foundation<\/a>. That’s where my research comes in. We already know that both oyster reefs and salt marshes remove excess nitrogen through denitrification. There are many efforts in North Carolina\u00a0to restore these habitats, and one purpose of restoration may be to enhance nitrogen removal.<\/p>\n

I’m trying to determine\u00a0how denitrification changes over time following restoration. Can we expect oyster reefs and salt marshes to start removing nitrogen soon after they\u2019re restored, or will it take a few years?<\/p>\n

To investigate, I’ve studied four salt marshes with fringing oyster reefs near Morehead City, N.C., where IMS is located. These habitats were restored at various points in the past, from 0 to 20 years before I started my research.<\/p>\n

\"P1200462\"
In this picture, I am collecting a sediment core. First, I push the core, a hollow plastic tube, about halfway into the ground. Then I pour water into the top part of the core, pull out the tube, and cap it with rubber stoppers. Photo by Luke Dodd.<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

Each season, I trek out to the sites and collect sediment cores by sticking a hollow plastic tube about halfway into the ground. Back in the lab, I connect these cores to a pump system that keeps water flowing through the top part of the core. I then measure the amount of nitrogen\u00a0gas dissolved in that water.<\/p>\n

Measuring dissolved gas doesn’t sound thrilling, but nitrogen\u00a0gas is produced by denitrification, so I’m actually directly measuring that process. Much more exciting!<\/p>\n

My experimental design is like a time machine. Instead of tracking one restored site for decades and staying in grad school forever<\/em>, I treat each site as a snapshot of a model restored system changing over time.<\/p>\n

The upshot so far? After restoration, summer denitrification rates are relatively low for the first couple of years. However, after about six\u00a0years, those summer rates increase and remain high for the next 14 years.<\/p>\n

This pattern is not identical for each season, and I\u2019m continuing to explore why. Summertime is important though, since the higher likelihood of algae blooms makes nitrogen\u00a0removal particularly necessary.<\/p>\n

As I have\u00a0learned from the television show\u00a0Shark Tank<\/em>, it\u2019s unwise to invest in something without enough knowledge to predict its chances of success. The same idea can be applied to restoration planning. If a coastal municipality wants to increase aquatic nitrogen removal, it may consider restoring an oyster reef and salt marsh.<\/p>\n

My research suggests that denitrification will not peak until about six\u00a0years following restoration, so restoration might not be a good fit if nitrogen removal is an immediate priority. However, restoration may contribute to a solution for communities looking to decrease aquatic nitrogen in the near future.<\/p>\n

When I describe my research, I\u2019m often asked whether I eat oysters. Absolutely! If anything, I\u2019m happy to support an important fishery that bolsters oysters\u2019 positive impact on our coasts.<\/p>\n

There may only be a few weeks left to enjoy North Carolina\u2019s wild oysters, as last year\u2019s season ended on\u00a0March 31.\u00a0 So, bon app\u00e9tit!<\/span><\/p>\n

Editor’s Note: Learn more about the Piehler lab by checking out recent papers in academic journals:\u00a0<\/em><\/div>\n
<\/div>\n
Byers, JE, JH.Grabowski, MF Piehler, AR Hughes, HW. Weiskel, JC Malek, DL Kimbro. 2015. Geographic variation in intertidal oyster reef properties and the influence of tidal prism. Limnology and Oceanography, in press.<\/div>\n
Read the paper here.<\/a><\/em><\/div>\n
<\/div>\n
Poe, Amy C et al. \u201cDenitrification in a Constructed Wetland Receiving Agricultural Runoff.\u201d Wetlands<\/i> 23.4 (2003): 817\u2013826. Academia<\/i>. Web. 9 Feb. 2016.<\/div>\n
Read the paper here.<\/em><\/div>\n
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