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Faunal Community Use of Enhanced and Natural
Oyster Reefs in Delaware Bay
Jenny Paterno Graduate Program in Ecology & Evolution
Haskin Shellfish Research Laboratory Rutgers, The State University of New Jersey
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Photo credits: Lisa Calvo
Est. 2007
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My Question: Does the Project PORTS
enhancement effort alter species abundances and community assemblages relative to unenhanced (natural) bottom?
Hypothesis: Adding ‘spat on shell’ to
sub-tidal bay bottom over time, will result in a faunal community similar to natural oyster reefs.
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Objectives for field study:
1. sample fishes and invertebrates on a restoration area and nearby unenhanced bottoms
2. compare species assemblages
across different bottom types 3. make conclusions about
restoration efforts
Photo credit: M. Luckenbach, VIMS
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Each of the 7 study sites are:
300 m x 115 m 34500 m2
0.0345 km2
8.5 acres
The entire
enhancement area : 4.05 hectacre
40469 m2 0.04 km2
10 acres
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Methods • Otter trawling: transient and resident fishes
– Twice a month on each site July-November 2013 – 3 tows per site – 30 tows/site over study duration
• Benthic habitat trays: resident fishes and macro-invertebrates – 2 trays on each site once a month July-November
2013 – 1 week soak time – 10 trays/site over study duration
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Trawl monitoring
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Benthic habitat trays Dimensions: 60 cm x 60 cm x 10 cm
12 quarts (~11.3 liters) of substrate put into each tray - collected using a lined dredge Collected: •Faunal information (species, length, weight) •Benthic habitat information
•Oyster abundance •Box (dead oyster) abundance •Cultch, debris (mud, sand, rock) and oyster volume
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Bar graph of average count of oysters per tray across all seven sites. Data are means ± 1 SE from trays (0.36 m2 x 9.5 cm, 11 liters of bottom material)
n= 10 trays per site. Letters denote significant differences P ≤ 0.05, Tukey’s HSD
a ab bc c c c c
0
10
20
30
40
50
60
HN26avg HN28avg GBOREA HS18avg Nant19avg St23avg St28avg
Num
ber o
f oy
ster
s pe
r tra
y
Site
Average abundance of oysters per tray
H1 H2 High oyster density
L1 L2 L3 L4 Low oyster density
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Trawl
A total of 1609 individuals of 30 species were collected in the trawl
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Species Common Name H1 H2 GBOREA L1 L2 L3 L4 Total Anchoa mitchili bay anchovy 52 117 28 176 76 14 24 487 Micropogonias undulatus Atlantic croaker 22 32 44 75 69 39 21 302 Cynoscion regalis weakfish 45 41 22 31 43 17 3 202 Trinectes maculatus hogchoker 3 21 27 15 48 24 16 154 Callinectes sapidus blue crab 18 18 14 23 23 15 13 124 Morone americana white perch 21 14 17 5 5 8 3 73 Menticirrhus saxatilis northern kingfish 1 0 7 11 3 6 0 28 Bairdiella chrysoura silver perch 9 3 6 0 0 6 1 25 Leiostomus xanthurus spot 1 6 2 9 2 0 0 20 Pogonias cromis black drum 4 4 1 3 0 4 0 16 Limulus polyphemus horseshoe crab 2 2 0 0 0 5 3 12 Paralichthys dentatus summer flounder 1 3 0 1 3 0 0 8 Chilomycterus schoepfi striped burrfish 1 2 2 0 1 1 0 7 Centropristis striata black sea bass 3 3 0 0 0 0 0 6 Alosa pseudoharengus alewife 0 2 0 1 1 1 0 5 Brevortia tyrannus Atlantic menhaden 1 1 0 0 1 0 0 3 Morone saxatilis striped bass 1 0 1 0 0 1 0 3 Ophidion marginatum striped cusk-eel 0 0 0 1 0 1 0 2 Syngnathus fuscus northern pipefish 0 0 0 1 0 1 0 2 Prionotus carolinus northern sea robin 1 0 0 1 0 0 0 2 Peprilus triacanthus butterfish 0 1 0 1 0 0 0 2 Mustelus canis smooth dogfish 0 1 0 0 0 0 1 2 Libinia emarginata spider crab 0 0 0 0 0 0 1 1 Astroscopus guttatus northern stargazer 0 0 0 0 1 0 0 1 Malaclemys terrapin diamondback terrapin 0 1 0 0 0 0 0 1 Penaeus aztecus brown shrimp 0 0 0 0 1 0 0 1 Scophthalmus aquosus windowpane flounder 0 1 0 0 0 0 0 1 Alosa mediocris hickory shad 0 0 0 0 1 0 0 1
Transient species
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Oyster reef resident species
Species Common Name H1 H2 GBOREA L1 L2 L3 L4 Total Opsanus tau oyster toadfish 35 11 24 1 3 13 30 117 Gobiosoma bosci naked goby 1 0 0 0 0 0 0 1
In summary, abundances of these species were highest on:
High oyster density GBOREA Low oyster density
Pogonias cromis Morone americana Centropristis striata
Trinectes maculatus Opsanus tau Menticirrhus saxatilis Chilomycterus schoepfi Morone saxatilis
Micropogonias undulatus
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Trawl: Species Accumulation Curves
Species accumulation curves of motile fauna for each sampling location. Solid lines are the Michaelis-Menten model curves fit to the data for each site.
0
5
10
15
20
25
0 5 10 15 20 25 30 35
Cum
mul
ativ
e N
umbe
r of S
peci
es C
olle
cted
Number of trawls
HN 26
HN 28
GBOREA
HS 18
Nant 19
St 23
St 28
H1 H2 GBOREA L1 L2 L3 L4
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H1 H2 GB L1 L2 L3 L4 H1 H2 GB L1 L2 L3 L4
Num
ber o
f ind
ivid
uals
per t
ow
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-1.0 1.0
-0.4
0.8
CSapid
MorSaxat
MAmerc
PTriac
OTau
MCanis
MenSaxat
PCarol
CSchoe
PDenta
PCroms
LPolypCStria
SFuscs
TMacul
BChrysLXanthCRegal
MUndul
PCA Axis 1 (eigenvalue = 0.34)
PC
A A
xis
2 (e
igen
valu
e =
0.17
)Principle Component Analysis on selected trawl data (19 species): rare species and those that wouldn’t be adequately sampled with an otter trawl were not included
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-1.0 1.0
-1.0
1.0
CSapid
MorSaxat
MAmerc
PTriac
OTau
MCanis
MenSaxat
PCarol
CSchoe
PDenta
PCroms
LPolypCStria
SFuscs
TMacul
BChrysLXanthCRegal
MUndul
Species
Samples
July August September October November
PCA Axis 1 (eigenvalue = 0.34)
PCA
Axis
2 (e
igen
valu
e =
0.17
)
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Benthic Habitat Trays
2211 individuals of 19 species were
collected in the trays
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Transient species
Species Common Name H1 H2 GBOREA L1 L2 L3 L4 Total Ilyanassa obsoleta eastern mudsnail 21 8 4 57 166 12 53 321 Paleomonetes vulgaris marsh grass shrimp 34 79 49 32 41 29 18 282 Paleomonetes pugio daggerblade grass shrimp 4 25 27 7 21 12 15 111 Mulinia literalis dwarf surf clam 0 0 0 0 3 0 4 7 Pagarus longicarpus long-clawed hermit crab 0 0 0 4 1 0 0 5 Polinices duplicatus shark eye moon snail 0 0 2 0 0 0 0 2 Tellina agilis northern dwarf tellin 0 0 0 0 2 0 0 2 Crangon septemspinosa sand shrimp 1 0 0 0 0 0 0 1 Anguilla rostata American eel 0 0 0 0 1 0 0 1
Species Common Name H1 H2 GBOREA L1 L2 L3 L4 Total Panopeus herbstii Atlantic mud crab 154 145 128 100 61 82 164 834 Rhithropanopeus harisii estuarine mud crab 36 40 22 51 8 47 64 268 Panopeus sayi say mud crab 31 62 18 10 20 21 35 197 Ischadium recurvum hooked mussel 10 12 31 16 1 5 0 75 Gobiosoma bosci naked goby 21 24 1 1 6 0 2 55 Geukensia demissa ribbed mussel 1 1 1 8 0 8 0 19 Crepidula convexa slipper snail 1 10 2 1 0 0 2 16 Opsanus tau oyster toadfish 2 4 2 0 2 1 1 12 Urosalpinx cinerea Atlantic oyster drill 1 0 0 0 0 0 1 2 Eurypanopeus depressus flat back mud crab 0 1 0 0 0 0 0 1
Oyster reef residents
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Trays: Species Accumulation Curves
Species accumulation curves of motile fauna for each sampling location. Solid lines are the Michaelis-Menten model curves fit to the data for each site.
0
2
4
6
8
10
12
14
0 2 4 6 8 10 12
Cum
ulat
ive
Num
ber o
f Spe
cies
Co
llect
ed
Number of Trays
HN 26
HN 28
GBOREA
HS 18
Nant 19
St 23
St 28
H1 H2 GBOREA L1 L2 L3 L4
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H1 H2 GB L1 L2 L3 L4 H1 H2 GB L1 L2 L3 L4
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Canonical Correspondence Analysis (CCA) bi-
plot of bottom habitat parameters
(explanatory variables) and tray
catch.
Explanatory variables account for 11.0% of the
variation exhibited in catch data.
(P<0.005)
-1.0 1.0
-1.0
1.0
CultVolm
BoxCount
DebrVolm
OystCoun
PHerbs
PSayi
RHaris
OTau
GDemis
IRecur
PPugioPVulgr
IObsol
PLongc
MLiterTAgilis
ARosta
GBosci
CConvex
UCiner
EDeprs
PDuplc
CSeptm
CCA Biplot (species ~ habitat properties)
Axis 1 (eigenvalue = 0.085)
Axis
2 (e
igen
valu
e =
0.06
7)
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Using Simpson’s Index of Diversity (SID) equation, indexes were calculated using cumulative trawl data from each of the seven sites.
Excluding Anchoa mitchili, the ten most abundant species collected in the trawl were
included in the calculations. The GBOREA exhibited the highest overall diversity index (0.845) of any other site.
0.7 0.72 0.74 0.76 0.78
0.8 0.82 0.84 0.86 0.88
0.9
H1 H2 GBOREA L1 L2 L3 L4
Dive
rsity
Inde
x (R
ange
0-1
)
Site
Simpson's Index of Diversity
More diverse
Less diverse
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Summary of Results
• Overall, a similar fish and macroinvertebrate community was found across all sites. • The enhancement site exhibited the greatest cumulative diversity of fish species • Species richness and total abundance: High oyster density reefs > Enhancement area ≥ Low oyster density reefs • The enhancement area appears to represent a transitional stage between degraded
oyster habitat and high oyster density habitat. In addition to its educational benefits, Project PORTS, a small-scale community
based restoration program created valuable oyster habitat.
Integration and Application Network, University of Maryland Center for Environmental Science
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The low relief oyster reef built through Project PORTS
is supporting a diverse faunal community
consistent with natural oyster habitats.
Conclusion
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Acknowledgements Lisa Calvo, Rutgers University Program Coordinator Funding • Dupont Clear into the Future • Geraldine Dodge Foundation • American Littoral Society • NJ Sea Grant Advisor: David Bushek, Committee members: Thomas Grothues, Olaf Jensen
and Rebecca Jordan Special thanks to my dedicated field crew: Iris Burt, Sarah Borsetti, Amy
Danka, Jessica Horton and Jennifer Gius .