Freshwater Detention by Oyster Reefs: Quantifying a Keystone Ecosystem Service.

ABSTRACT: Oyster reefs provide myriad ecosystem services, including water quality improvement, fisheries and other faunal support, shoreline protection from erosion and storm surge, and economic productivity. However, their role in directing flow during non-storm conditions has been largely neglected. In regions where oyster reefs form near the mouth of estuarine rivers, they likely alter ocean-estuary exchange by acting as fresh water "dams". We hypothesize that these reefs have the potential to detain fresh water and influence salinity over extensive areas, thus providing a "keystone" ecosystem service by supporting estuarine functions that rely on the maintenance of estuarine (i.e., brackish) conditions in the near-shore environment. In this work, we investigated the effects of shore-parallel ree

SUBMITTER: Kaplan DA 

PROVIDER: S-EPMC5147930 | biostudies-literature | 2016

REPOSITORIES: biostudies-literature