Summary of Maryland DNR and Potomac River Fisheries Commission (PRFC)
Funded Research to Assist Preparation of Environmental Impact Statement on
Oyster Restoration Alternatives
(Prepared by: Tom O’Connell, MD DNR, Fisheries Service)
Last Updated: July 27, 2004
1. Project Title: Modeling dispersal of Crassostrea ariakensis oyster larvae in Chesapeake Bay
Project Cost: $99,885 (MD DNR)
Lead Research Agency: University of Maryland Center of Environmental Studies
Investigators: Drs. Elizabeth North, Raleigh Hood, Ming Li, and Tom Gross
Objective: Determine the potential distance and rate of C. ariakensis and C. virginica oyster larvae dispersal in Chesapeake Bay using coupled hydrodynamic and larval transport models, and links to population models.
2. Project Title: Behavioral responses of Crassostrea ariakensis and Crassostrea virginica larvae to environmental change under spatially realistic conditions.
Project Cost: $139,210 (MD DNR)
Lead Research Agency: University of Maryland Center of Environmental Studies
Investigators: Roger Newell, Vic Kennedy, Don Meritt (HPL); Joan L. Manuel (HPL Post-doctoral Investigator); Mark Luckenbach and Roger Mann (VIMS)
Objective:
- Determine in small chambers the behavioral responses of “D” and “umboned” stage C. ariakensis veliger larvae to gradients of salinity, temperature, and dissolved oxygen.
- Use the results from these small scale experiments to determine the critical combinations of salinity, temperature, and dissolved oxygen for experiments with gradients developed over realistic water column depths. In these experiments, quantify larval behavior over the entire ~21 d larval development period from D stage to pediveliger.
- Quantify settlement success (i.e., metamorphosis onto a substrate) for larvae subject to these various physical conditions.
- Compare and contrast this with the response of C. virginica larvae exposed to the same experimental regimes.
3. Project Title: Evaluation of gametogenesis and spawning cues for diploid C. ariakensis for estimation of environmental risk and establishment of diploid brood stock populations.
Project Cost: $149,487 (MD DNR)
Lead Research Agency: University of Maryland Center for Environmental Studies and Virginia Institute of Marine Sciences
Investigators: Drs. Don Meritt (UMCES) and Stan Allen (VIMS)
Objective:
- Estimate reproductive timing (in flow through quarantine) and fecundity for yearling diploid C. ariakensis under low and medium salinity regimes (York and Choptank Rivers).
- Evaluation of cues eliciting spawning in ripe C. ariakensis diploids: temperature, salinity, and the combination.
- Produce year class of diploid C. ariakensis in anticipation of (diploid) brood stock needs in future years.
- Establishment of pond quarantine protocols for long-term maintenance of reproductively capable C. ariakensis.
4. Project Title: Competitive interactions between eastern and suminoe oyster from diploid larval settlement through to development of reefs and the assessment of the habitat value of such reefs.
Project Cost: $180,622 ($130,479 (MD DNR) and $50,143 (PRFC))
Lead Research Agencies: University of Maryland Center of Environmental Studies, Virginia Institute of Marine Sciences, Smithsonian Environmental Resources Center, Cooperative Oxford Laboratory
Investigators: Drs. Roger Newell (UMCES), Mark Luckenbach (VIMS), and Denise Breitburg (SERC), and Chris Dungan (MD DNR Oxford Lab)
Objective:
- Examine the reef-building capabilities of C. ariakensis and determine the ecological interactions of C. ariakensis and C. virginica at all life stages from larval settlement through juvenile (~9 month old individuals).
- Determine the growth rate of diploid C. ariakensis under ambient temperature and salinity regimes typical of the upper Chesapeake Bay.
- Determine susceptibility of diploid C. ariakensis to native parasites and pathogens under conditions characteristic of Maryland waters of Chesapeake Bay.
5. Spawning Interactions Between Crassostrea ariakensis and Crassostrea virginica, Does the Proposed Introduction of a New Species Pose a Recruitment Threat to Native Oysters?
Project Cost: $79,459 (MD DNR) Approval Pending
Lead Research Agencies: University of Maryland Center of Environmental Studies and Virginia Institute of Marine Sciences
Investigators: Drs. Donald Meritt and Stan Allen
Objective:
1) Determine if gametes from one species will successfully stimulate the other species to spawn; and
2) Determine the extent (if any) of loss of reproduction potential for both species when gametes are mixed.
6. Project Title: Susceptibility of Crassostrea ariakensis to the oyster pathogen Bonamia ostreae and to Bonamia sp. Recently discovered in C. ariakensis in North Carolina.
Project Cost: $39,963 (MD DNR)
Lead Research Agency: Virginia Institute of Marine Sciences
Investigators: Dr. Eugene Burreson
Objective:
- Determine if C. ariakensis is susceptible to B. ostreae in temperature and salinity conditions typical of Chesapeake Bay and the Mid-Atlantic open coast, and, if so, we will know whether the parasite causes mortality.
Determine if Bonamia sp. recently discovered in North Carolina causes mortality in C. ariakensis, and whether it can withstand temperature and salinity conditions typical of Chesapeake Bay.
7. Project Title: Behavior and substrate selection in C. ariakensis pediveliger larvae in response to variation in environmental condition.
Project Cost: $64,468 (MD DNR)
Lead Research Agency: Virginia Institute of Marine Sciences
Investigators: Drs. Roger Mann (VIMS), Mario Tamburri (CBL), and Denise Breitburg (SERC)
Objective:
- Determine how the behavior and substrate preference of pediveliger C. ariakensis at the time of settlement differs from or resembles that of C. virginica.
o Examine behavior of C. ariakensis pediveligers under normoxic and hypoxic conditions.
o Evaluate the effects of various substrates on C. ariakensis settlement and metamorphosis.
8. Project Title: Investigation of a Crassostrea ariakensis reef in Laizhou Bay, China.
Project Cost: $50,000 (MD DNR)
Lead Research Agency: Virginia Institute of Marine Sciences
Investigators: Drs. Mark Luckenbach (VIMS), Ken Paynter (UMD), Junda Lin (FL Institute of Technology), Huayong Que (Chinese Institute of Oceanography), and Chris Richardson (University of Wales)
Objective: Obtain an improved understanding of C. ariakensis’ capacity to produce reefs under specific environmental conditions and to relate these findings to the Chesapeake Bay.
- Characterize the physical environment around the reef.
- Map the reef using side-scan sonar and describe its morphology.
- Obtain video imagery of the reef and associated organisms.
- Determine the population and age structure of both oyster species on the reef.
- Collect samples that will permit later determination of age-specific growth rate in C. ariakensis under differing salinity regimes.
- Collect oyster tissue samples that can be later used for disease and genetic assays.
9. Project Title: Research and Development Studies on Crassostrea ariakensis.
Project Cost: $207,851 (MD DNR)
Lead Research Agency: Center of Marine Biotechnology, University of Maryland Biotechnology Institute
Investigators: Drs. Yonathan Zohar and Gerardo Vasta
Objectives:
- Examine in vitro the virulence of various Perkinsus species/strains present in the Chesapeake Bay for C. ariakensis.
- Investigate the virulence of selected parasite species (i.e. Haplosporidium spp. and Bonamia spp.) for C. ariakensis by experimental infection at the organismal level.
- Assess the risk of viral pathogens in Crassostrea ariakensis.
10. Environmental Tolerance Studies on Crassostrea ariakensis
Project Cost: $34,114 (MD DNR)
Lead Research Agency: Center of Marine Biotechnology, University of Maryland Biotechnology Institute
Investigators: Dr. Yonathan Zohar, Jennifer Carroll and John Stubblefield
Objective: The basic biological questions that will be addressed by this study are:
- If dispersed as larvae, C. ariakensis may live and prosper within the Chesapeake Bay, but will it be able to disperse and propagate beyond the presumed biological barriers (temperature and salinity maximums and minimums) in the northern and southern reaches of the Bay?
- Will C. ariakensis larvae fare better in certain regions of the Bay, based on their temperature and salinity tolerance?
11. Project Title: A Population Model for the Oyster C. ariakensis
Project Cost: $50,000 (PRFC)
Lead Research Agencies: Virginia Institute of Marine Sciences
Investigators: Drs. Roger Mann and Juliana Harding
Objective:
- Develop a comprehensive description of growth (size versus age) for C.a. in a variety of habitats corresponding to a range covering much of the Chesapeake Bay (and possibly further a field) using age versus length curves developed from examination of growth lines and bands in the resilium of the hinge region.
- Use this age-based model as a foundation to incorporate data from sister studies on fecundity, larval biology, and recruitment into comprehensive comparative models.
12. Project Title: Biology Integrator Asian Oyster Power Plant Intake Fouling Assessment
Project Cost: $63,452 (MD DNR)
Lead Research Agency: Versar Inc.
Investigators: Dr. Bill Rickus
Objective: Assess the potential for the C. ariakensis to result in fouling of water intakes of Maryland power plants that withdraw cooling water from Chesapeake Bay waters.
Assessments and EIS Coordination and Preparation
13. Project Title: Ecological Risk Assessment (ERA) in support of a programmatic Environmental Impact Statement (EIS) to evaluate alternative approaches to increasing oyster populations into the Chesapeake Bay.
Project Cost: $299,611 (MD DNR)
Lead Agency/Company: University of Maryland and Versar
Investigators: Dr. Mary Christman (UMD), Jon Volstad (Versar)
Objective: Conduct an Ecological Risk Assessment consistent with EPA ecological risk assessment guidelines, addressing the proposed introduction of the Asian oyster, Crassostrea ariakensis, into the Chesapeake Bay.
- In order to conduct the risk assessment, demographic oyster population models will be developed that can be used to predict population growth of Crassostrea ariakensis and Crassostrea virginica within Chesapeake Bay, both spatially and temporally, under all specified oyster restoration alternatives specified by MD DNR/Norfolk COE. These models would be used to estimate the probability of achieving the stated goal of re-establishing a naturalized, reproducing, and self-sustaining population of oysters, and of increasing biomass levels to 1970 levels within a specified time period (e.g., by 2020). The model would also be used to evaluate the likelihood of C. ariakensis becoming a nuisance species within the Chesapeake Bay. The potential for the introduced C. ariakensis to create fouling of water intakes throughout the Bay will be evaluated in an associated effort under separate funding, but results of that effort will be incorporated into the risk assessment.
14. Project Title: Economic Component of an Environmental Impact Statement for Proposed Introduction of the oyster species, Crassostrea ariakensis, into the tidal waters of Maryland and Virginia to re-establish a naturalized, reproducing, and self-sustaining population of oysters.
Project Cost: $52,122 (MD DNR)
Lead Research Agencies: University of Maryland and Virginia Institute of Marine Sciences
Investigators: Drs. Doug Lipton (UMD), Jim Kirkley and Tom Murray (VIMS)
Objective:
- Assess the Economic Benefits from Commercial Oyster Fishery
o Determine the potential scale of the Chesapeake Bay oyster industry under different scenarios for the EIS proposal and alternatives.
o Discussion of the potential rents and consumer surplus for the EIS proposal and alternatives.
- Assess the Economic Benefits to non-Oyster Commercial Fisheries
o Develop overview of current commercial fisheries in Chesapeake Bay.
o Analysis of literature on water quality impacts on commercial fishing.
- Assess the Economic Benefits to Recreational (non-oyster) Chesapeake Bay Fisheries
o Analysis of literature on the value of recreational fishing, particularly related to catch rate improvements and for Chesapeake Bay fisheries.
o Discussion and comparison of proposal and alternatives and their relative impacts on recreational fishing benefits.
- Identify and Analyze Other Benefits to Water Quality Improvements.
o Analysis of literature related to benefits from water quality improvements such as property values, boaters, and non-use values.
o Analysis of potential cost-savings in reaching Chesapeake Bay water quality goals when oyster production is restored.
o Comparison of proposal and alternatives in regard to how they might affect other benefits from water quality improvements.
- Identify and Analyze Potential Economic Harm from the EIS Proposal and Alternatives.
o Document known benefits of Chesapeake Bay resources and how these might be diminished by the EIS proposal or alternatives.
o Discussion (based on literature review) of diminished value, if any, due to willingness-to-pay to avoid any (or additional) non-native introductions into ecosystems.
15. Cultural Analysis for EIS on Oyster Restoration Alternatives
Project Cost: $37,571 (MD DNR)
Lead Research Agency: University of Maryland, Department of Anthropology
Investigators: Dr. Michael Paolisso
Objective: Prepare a socio/cultural assessment of the proposed action and alternatives for the Environmental Impact Statement.
- Identify cultural models for understanding proposed action and alternatives.
- Identify cultural and socioeconomic implications of proposed action and alternatives for watermen communities.
- Identify a strategy to address the potential effects to historical and archeological resources that may be impacted during the implementation of the proposed action (i.e. construction of oyster reefs).
Collaborate with Versar, MES, UMD and VIMS.
16. Project Title: Development of a programmatic Environmental Impact Statement (EIS) on Oyster Restoration Alternatives
Project Cost: $300,000 (MD DNR)
Lead Research Agency: Maryland Environmental Service
Investigators: Wayne Young, Kate Meade, Tammy Banta, Michelle Griffin, Elizabeth Habic (MES)
Objective: Assist the federal and state lead agencies in planning, coordinating, and developing the programmatic EIS in accordance with the provisions of the National Environmental Policy Act (NEPA).