Do Oyster Filtration and Wave Attenuation Associated with Oyster Reefs and Breakwaters Improve Seagrass Habitat?This project addresses one of the priorities established by Maryland Sea Grant: the health of our coastal ecosystems, or more specifically, a physical-biological link between oyster reefs and seagrass habitats. Oyster reefs used to occur along virtually the entire shoreline of Chesapeake Bay. With their disappearance, a commercially valuable species and the physical structures that sheltered shallow seagrass habitats were lost. Presently, man-made oyster reefs are being reestablished to restore this natural resource. By understanding and modeling how well these man-made reefs fulfill the ecosystem service of wave attenuation and filtration (potentially promoting the establishment of seagrasses) it will be possible to design future oyster reefs that maximally benefit local seagrass communities. |
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Raleigh Hood
Evamaria Koch Roger Newell Elizabeth North Larry Sanford Horn Point Laboratory University of Maryland Center for Environmental Science |
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