“Impacts of Oyster Aquaculture on Subaqueous Soils and Infauna” with Chelsea Duball.

Oysters are praised as ecosystem engineers, not only for their filter feeding, which draws particulate matter and nutrients out of the water, but also for their ability to create natural structures in the wild that can protect against storm surges on the coasts. But, as they expel excess nutrients that they don’t use, is there a potential for an environmental tradeoff, either in soil health or on the other creatures that live within these ecosystems? Chelsea Duball and her team studied oysters in Rhode Island lagoons, researching how much feces oysters could produce at various stocking densities, the short term effects of those feces on soil health, and the long term effects those deposits could have on the tiny creatures that live within oyster farm soils.

Tune in to learn:

• How to collect oyster feces underwater
• What kind of underwater critters oyster farming can attract
• What ecological benefits oysters can provide
• How oyster farming can impact soils both in the short and long term

If you would like more information about this topic, this episode’s paper is available here: https://doi.org/10.2134/jeq2019.03.0099 

It will be freely available from 19 June to 3 July, 2020.

If you would like to find transcripts for this episode or sign up for our newsletter, please visit our website: http://fieldlabearth.libsyn.com/

Contact us at [email protected] or on Twitter @FieldLabEarth if you have comments, questions, or suggestions for show topics, and if you want more content like this don’t forget to subscribe.

If you would like to reach out to Chelsea, you can find her here: [email protected] Twitter: @ChelseaDirtball Instagram: @drawn.from.below

Resources

CEU Quiz: http://www.agronomy.org/education/classroom/classes/810

"Oysters Clear the Waters, but Do They Muddy the Soil?" CSA News article: https://doi.org/10.1002/csan.20167

Billion Oyster Project: https://www.billionoysterproject.org/

Billion Oyster Project Twitter: https://twitter.com/billionoyster

The Nature Conservancy Oyster Reef Restoration: https://www.nature.org/en-us/about-us/where-we-work/united-states/oyster-restoration/

99% Invisible Oyster-Tecture episode: https://99percentinvisible.org/episode/oyster-tecture/

99% Invisible Twitter: https://twitter.com/99piorg

One to Grow On/Sourceress podcast crossover episode: https://www.onetogrowonpod.com/oysters-real-oyster-cult-american-folk-revival-sourceress/

One to Grow On Podcast Twitter: https://twitter.com/onetogrowonpod

Field, Lab, Earth is copyrighted to the American Society of Agronomy, Crop Science Society of America, and Soil Science Society of America.