Document Type
Article
Department/Program
Virginia Institute of Marine Science
Publication Date
2006
Journal
MARINE ECOLOGY PROGRESS SERIES
Volume
325
First Page
301
Last Page
309
Abstract
Restoration of the oyster Crassostrea virginica population in Chesapeake Bay is often advocated as an easy solution for controlling phytoplankton blooms. Even at their pre-colonial densities, oysters are unlikely to have controlled blooms, despite the fact that sediment cores suggest that pre-colonial spring blooms were smaller than at present. Lack of access to all bay water and low springtime filtration rates would make it impossible for oysters to control the spring bloom and the resulting summer hypoxia. Previous studies have overestimated potential oyster filtration rates, because they extrapolated summer rates to spring conditions that are 20 degrees C cooler. Previous studies have also assumed that oysters have access to all phytoplankton, without considering the spatial separation. In Chesapeake Bay, oysters and the spring bloom are separated horizontally owing to the size of the bay and its small tidal amplitude. Indeed, a multi-species guild of suspension feeders now present in the bay should have a filtration capacity approaching that of pre-colonial oysters, but it does not control the bloom. Actual oyster filtration potential must be lower than many advocates of oyster restoration assume, and replenishing the bay with oysters is not the means of controlling blooms and hypoxia.
DOI
10.3354/meps325301
Keywords
Chesapeake Bay; hypoxia; oysters; eutrophication
Recommended Citation
Pomeroy, Lawrence R.; D'Elia, Christopher F.; and Schaffner, Linda C., Limits to top-down control of phytoplankton by oysters in Chesapeake Bay (2006). MARINE ECOLOGY PROGRESS SERIES, 325, 301-309.
10.3354/meps325301
