Mapping oysters on the Pacific coast of North America: A coast-wide collaboration to inform enhanced conservation.

ABSTRACT: To conserve coastal foundation species, it is essential to understand patterns of distribution and abundance and how they change over time. We synthesized oyster distribution data across the west coast of North America to develop conservation strategies for the native Olympia oyster (Ostrea lurida), and to characterize populations of the non-native Pacific oyster (Magallana gigas). We designed a user-friendly portal for data entry into ArcGIS Online and collected oyster records from unpublished data submitted by oyster experts and from the published literature. We used the resulting 2,000+ records to examine spatial and temporal patterns and made an interactive web-based map publicly available. Comparing records from pre-2000 vs. post-2000, we found that O. lurida significantly decreased i

SUBMITTER: Kornbluth A 

PROVIDER: S-EPMC8929589 | biostudies-literature | 2022

REPOSITORIES: biostudies-literature