Quote:
Originally Posted by MathGeek
Chesapeake Bay is a much different system than Calcasieu. The water stays in the bay for much longer, and most of the bay is too deep to support oyster reefs. Further, the oysters are in the estuary, whereas, most of the hypoxia is in the Gulf of Mexico.
No one is suggesting that oysters offer complete control or are a magic bullet. The question is whether algae blooms and hypoxia go down when oyster populations go up, and if so, by how much?
Certainly, maintaining a balanced ecosystem requires more than oyster reef restoration. But if oyster reef restoration could reduce the average hypoxia in the near shore Gulf off of Cameron Parish by 50%, wouldn't this be an interesting and relevant finding?
Isn't it worth analyzing the existing data to explore the potential?
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it would be very relevant, but it hasn't been found despite decades of oyster research and decades of hypoxic zones
low to no oxygen is low to no oxygen to an oyster whether its in Calcasieu Lake, Sabine Lake, Florida, Delaware, or Japan. Everything else you have been saying is spot on, just leave the hypoxia out of the list of ecosystem services oysters perform is all. You put a fish in a hypoxic zone, it swims away or dies, a shrimp swims away or dies, an oyster does not have that option so it closes up and does not filter feed. There are studies showing oysters get stressed and die during hypoxic conditions, they can't magically filter out phosphorus, nitrogen, and potassium out of the water when they have no oxygen to survive on.