Impacts of water quality on oyster development to inform oyster reef restoration and sustainability on the Mississippi Gulf Coast

 
 

Principal Investigators: Deborah Gochfeld (University of Mississippi), Kristie Willett (UM), Stephanie Showalter Otts (UM)

Team Members: Jessica Pruett (Postdoctoral Scientist), Ann Fairly Pandelides (R&D Biologist)

Undergraduate Interns: Jaycie Keylon (Deepwater Horizon Memorial Intern), Christian Boudreaux (2022 UM STEMS REU Summer Intern), Alexz Carpenter (2022 UM STEMS REU Summer Intern)

Award Amount: $442,942

Project Website: http://nsglc.olemiss.edu/projects/oysterreefrestoration/index.html

Project Description

Goal:

Integrate field, laboratory, and policy research on the impacts of low salinity, pH, dissolved oxygen and harmful algal blooms on early life stages of oysters to inform sustainable oyster reef restoration efforts in Mississippi coastal waters.

Why it is Important:

Restoration and conservation of sustainable oyster reefs in the Mississippi Sound requires an understanding of where oysters can survive and thrive under present conditions. Although not as well studied as adults, oyster early developmental stages are generally more sensitive to environmental stressors.

Objectives:

  1. Collect temporally and spatially explicit data on levels of these abiotic and biotic stressors at current, former and potential oyster reef sites across the Mississippi Sound.

  2. Expose oyster larvae and juvenile oysters in laboratory bioassays to a range of water quality conditions, independently and in combination, to assess the effects of single and multiple stressors on development, growth, and survival of oyster early life history stages.

  3. Out-plant seed oysters in the Core Research Program sensor platforms at oyster gardening, restoration and aquaculture sites across the Mississippi Sound to evaluate in situ growth and survival after early life stage exposures to stressors.

  4. Analyze the legal and policy framework governing oyster harvesting and oyster reef restoration in Mississippi and translating our findings into a policy brief that will summarize the implications of our research results for oyster reef management.

Expected Outcomes and Management Impacts:

  • Changes in state oyster reef restoration and management policy (click here to see the policy brief generated by this project).

  • Increased productivity of oyster reefs

  • Fresh water inflow management

  • Develop policies to facilitate moving cultured/gardened oysters under extreme events to mitigate loss

  • Recommendations for locations and endpoints for long-term monitoring to ensure oyster sustainability

  • Pruett and Showalter Otts authored the article “Mississippi’s Oyster Journey from ‘Seafood Capital of the World’ to 21st Century Collapse” for the Mississippi-Alabama Sea Grant Legal Program journal Water Log. See link here.

OUTREACH:

St. Stanislaus High School (SSHS) Marine Science Program (led by Letha Boudreaux, teacher). Ten marine science interns monitored and maintained our deployed juvenile oyster experiments and the sensor platform deployed at that site. We organized and gave presentations in a seminar series for marine science classes and incorporated presentations by SSHS interns in our student engagement activity at the Mississippi Restoration Summit. 

Click through the images below to see tweets from St. Stanislaus and members of the UM team about the collaboration.

 
 
 
 

Project Outputs

    1. Pruett J, Otts S. Mississippi’s Oyster Journey from “Seafood Capital of the World” to 21st Century Collapse. Water Log 43:1. Link.

    2. Wontor K, Cizdziel JK, Scircle A, Gochfeld DJ, Pandelides AF. 2023. Prevalence and distribution of microplastics in oysters from the Mississippi Sound. Journal of Contemporary Water Research and Education. Accepted.

    3. Pruett J, Pandelides AF, Keylon J, Willett K, Showalter Otts S, Gochfeld D. 2022. Life stage-dependent effects of multiple flood-associated stressors on a coastal foundational species. Ecosphere. (doi:10.1002/ecs2.4343). Link.

    4. Pruett JL, Showalter Otts S, Willett KL, Gochfeld DJ. 2022. Accounting for the entire oyster life cycle in restoration efforts: a brief for policy makers. University of Mississippi, National Sea Grant Law Center Publication NSGLC-22-06-03. Link.

    5. Pruett JL, Pandelides AF, Willett KL, Gochfeld DG. 2021. Effects of flood- associated stressors on growth and survival of early life stage oysters (Crassostrea virginica). Journal of Experimental Marine Biology and Ecology 544:151615 (doi:10.1016/j.jembe.2021.151615). Link.

    1. Pruett JL, Gochfeld DJ, Willett KL, Otts SS, Darnell K, Fairbanks L. The influence of changing environmental and management conditions on past and present Mississippi oyster reefs. Bays and Bayous Meeting, Mobile, AL, 24-25 January 2023.

    2. Boudreaux C, Carpenter A, Pruett J, Gochfeld D, Willett K. "Effect of ploidy on early life stage tolerance of salinity and temperature", Poster presentation, University of Mississippi Annual Research Day, Oxford, MS, October 11, 2022

    3. Carpenter A, Boudreaux C, Pruett J, Gochfeld D, Willett K. "Effect of chemical inducers on larval settlement in suboptimal conditions", Poster presentation, University of Mississippi Annual Research Day, Oxford, MS, October 11, 2022

    4. Pruett JL, Showalter Otts S, Willett KL, Gochfeld DJ. Accounting for the Entire Oyster Life Cycle in Mississippi Restoration Effort. National Sea Grant Law Center Webinar Series. September 20, 2022

    5. Boudreaux C, Carpenter A, Pruett J, Gochfeld D, Willett K. "Effect of ploidy on early life stage tolerance of salinity and temperature", Oral presentation, University of Mississippi STEMS REU Program, Oxford, MS, August 1, 2022

    6. Carpenter A, Boudreaux C, Pruett J, Gochfeld D, Willett K. "Effect of chemical inducers on larval settlement in suboptimal conditions", Oral presentation, University of Mississippi STEMS REU Program, Oxford, MS, August 1, 2022

    7. Pruett JL, Willett KL, Gochfeld DJ, “Combined effects of low salinity stress and microcystin-LR on early oyster life stages”, Mid-South SETAC Meeting, Jonesboro, Arkansas, May 9-11, 2022

    8. Pruett JL, Willett KL, Otts SS, Gochfeld DJ, “Understanding the impacts of water quality stressors on early oyster life stages to inform oyster reef restoration efforts”, Gulf of Mexico Conference (GoMCon), Baton Rouge, LA, April 25-28, 2022.

    9. Wontor K, Pandelides AF, Scircle A, Gochfeld D, Cizdziel J. "Concentration, localization, and polymer types of microplastics in Mississippi Gulf Coast oysters", Poster presentaion, Gulf of Mexico Conference (GoMCon), Baton Rouge, LA, April 25-28, 2022

    10. Pruett JL, Pandelides AF, Keylon J, Willett KL, Otts SS, Gochfeld DJ. Life stage-dependent effects of multiple stressors associated with freshwater flooding events on the eastern oyster. Benthic Ecology Meeting, Portsmouth, New Hampshire, March 29-April 2, 2022.

    11. Pandelides AF, Keylon J, Pruett JL, Willett KL, Gochfeld DJ, “Impacts of water quality stressors associated with freshwater flooding on molecular endpoints in Crassostrea virginica”, Oral presentation, Coastal and Estuarine Research Federation Conference, Virtual, November 1-11, 2021

    12. Pruett JL, Pandelides AF, Keylon J, Willett KL, Showalter Otts S, Gochfeld DJ, “Integrating science and policy research to inform oyster reef restoration efforts in the Mississippi Sound”, Oral presentation, Coastal and Estuarine Research Federation Conference, Virtual, November 1-11, 2021

    13. Pruett JL, Pandelides AF, Keylon J, Willett KL, Otts SS, Gochfeld DJ, “Negative impacts of flood-associated water quality stressors on early oyster life stages”, Poster presentation, School of Pharmacy Annual Poster Session, Oxford, Mississippi, October 19, 2021

    14. Wontor K, Cizdziel J, Barnett AF, Gochfeld DJ, “Microplastics in oysters from the Mississippi Sound”, Oral presentation, National Environmental Monitoring Conference, Bellevue, Washington, August 2-9, 2021

    15. Pruett JL, Pandelides AF, Keylon J, Willett KL, Showalter Otts S, Gochfeld, “Effects of water quality stressors associated with freshwater intrusion events on early life stage oysters”, Poster presentation, Ozark-Prairie/Mid-South Society of Environmental Toxicology and Chemistry Joint Meeting, Virtual, May 10-12, 2021

    16. Pruett JL, Barnett AF, Keylon J, Willett KL, Showalter Otts S, Gochfeld DJ, “Juvenile Crassostrea virginica responses to flood-associated water quality stressors”, Oral presentation, National Shellfisheries Association Annual Meeting, Virtual, March 21-25, 2021

    17. Pruett JL, Barnett AF, Willett KL, Otts SS, Gochfeld DJ. “Impact of water quality stressors associated with flooding events on the growth and survival of larval and juvenile oysters”, Oral presentation, Bays and Bayous Symposium, Virtual, December 1-3, 2020

    18. Scircle A, Barnett AF, Gochfeld DJ, Cizdziel JV. "The occurrence and distribution of microplastics in oysters from the Mississippi Sound", Oral presentation, Bays and Bayous, Virtual, December 1-3, 2020

    19. Barnett AF, Pruett JL, Willett KL, Otts SS, Gochfeld DJ, “Impact of biotic and abiotic stressors on early life history stages of the Eastern oyster, Crassostrea virginica”, Poster presentation, Society of Environmental Toxicology and Chemistry Meeting, Virtual, November 14-19, 2020

    1. Pruett, Jessica and Deborah Gochfeld. 2022. Water quality data collected in the northern Gulf of Mexico from 2021-05-01 to 2021-07-31 and Eastern oyster (Crassostrea virginica) growth and survival responses during multistressor exposures. Distributed by: Gulf of Mexico Research Initiative Information and Data Cooperative (GRIIDC), Harte Research Institute, Texas A&M University–Corpus Christi. doi:10.7266/WY0D0D1V

    2. Pruett, Jessica L., Ann Fairly Pandelides, and Deborah J. Gochfeld. 2021. Dataset for: Effects of flood-associated stressors on growth and survival of early life stage oysters (Crassostrea virginica). Distributed by: Gulf of Mexico Research Initiative Information and Data Cooperative (GRIIDC), Harte Research Institute, Texas A&M University–Corpus Christi. doi:10.7266/1AGW7HQZ.

    1. Keylon J (2022) Gene expression of stress-related biomarkers and disease presence in Crassostrea virginica. University of Mississippi, Sally McDonnell Barksdale Honors College thesis. em description