The Impacts of Nearshore Oyster Habitat Restoration on Salt Marsh Stabilization, Secondary Productivity, and Oyster Recruitment

About the Project:

Estuarine habitats represent some of the most sensitive and imperiled ecotones along the Gulf of Mexico. Oysters and marshes have been critical components of estuarine ecosystems and provide myriad ecological and economic benefits. Historically abundant, oyster reefs and fringing marshes have experienced dramatic declines resulting mainly from overharvesting, development, and degrading water quality. Accompanying these declines is the loss of the associated ecological and economic benefits.

Restoring these ecosystem benefits through habitat restoration has become a top priority of many coastal managers. One of proposed solutions that incorporates both oyster reef restoration and fringing marsh conservation is the construction of subtidal and intertidal oyster reef breakwaters, also sometimes collectively termed living shorelines.

Currently, there are many different living shoreline designs being implemented across the northern Gulf of Mexico, including in the Grand Bay National Estuarine Research Reserve (GNDNERR); however, intensive monitoring that fuels adaptive management of these projects has been historically rare.

Lack of post construction monitoring limits the ability to determine project goal achievement and overall restoration success. Many of these monitoring efforts have a limited focus on the impacts of restoration efforts. Either they only focused on a limited number of response metrics, or they only focused on one design of restoration.

This study will evaluate the fulfillment of restoration goals by addressing knowledge gaps in post construction monitoring and monitoring scope through a GNDNERR restoration project. Two large-scale oyster reef projects were constructed at the GNDNERR in July 2021. This restoration project offers the unique opportunity to evaluate multiple restoration designs (i.e., intertidal vs. sub-tidal) in a relatively small area.

This study will evaluate a suite of environmental parameters to determine how this restoration project impacted these areas. This study will also evaluate how alternate designs of restoration influence the environmental parameters.

Major goals of this project:

  • Protecting eroding marsh habitat

  • Increasing secondary productivity

  • Increasing oyster recruitment

Get in Touch

Matt Virden, Extension Associate

mfv24@msstate.edu

Contact Us
(228) 388-4710
1815 Popps Ferry Rd.
Biloxi, MS 39532

Fax: (228) 388 – 1375

Mailstop: 9385

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About Coastal Conservation and RESTORATION program

Our focus areas are broad and adapt to the current needs of stakeholders, but generally involve coastal conservation and restoration projects at local, state, regional, national, and international scales.