Restoring oysters to urban estuaries: Redefining habitat quality for eastern oyster performance near New York City.

ABSTRACT: Restoring and conserving coastal resilience faces increasing challenges under current climate change predictions. Oyster restoration, in particular, faces threats from alterations in precipitation, warming water temperatures, and urbanization of coastlines that dramatically change salinity patterns, foster the proliferation and spread disease, and disrupt habitat connectivity, respectively. New York City (NYC) coastal waters, once home to a booming oyster fishery for eastern oysters (Crassostrea virginica), are now nearly devoid of live oyster reefs. Oyster restoration in urban estuaries is motivated by the synergistic ecosystem benefits this native keystone species can deliver. Recent surveys have documented substantial remnant populations of adult oysters in the upper low salinity zone o

SUBMITTER: McFarland K 

PROVIDER: S-EPMC6239315 | biostudies-literature | 2018

REPOSITORIES: biostudies-literature