Effect of Baycrete Texture and Tides on Ostrea Lurida & Balanus Amphitrite Settlement

Overview

Globally invasive Balanus amphitrite is a common fouling barnacle in harbors worldwide; it is found on many non-living substrates including ships, pilings, and seawalls but can also settle on the shells of living oysters, mussels, and crabs. B. amphitrite causes ships to burn more fuel due to increased drag; they can also negatively impact native species that they settle upon. Ostrea lurida, the Olympia oyster, is a foundational species native to the North American Pacific coast; it provides habitat for other species and filters the water. Extant Olympia oyster abundances are a fraction of their abundance a century ago. Resource managers are interested in restoring Olympia oysters using baycrete, a concrete mixture incorporating oyster shells, as a base for oyster beds. Baycrete recruits native oysters but may also recruit nonindigenous species. We explored baycrete characteristics that might promote native species recruitment while discouraging nonindigenous species recruitment. From May to September 2018, we deployed replicate baycrete tiles of two textures (rough, smooth) at two tidal elevations (0 m MLLW, +0.6 m MLLW) in San Diego Bay, CA. We used 2-way ANOVA to test whether the difference between native O. lurida and nonindigenous B. amphitrite percent covers was affected by rugosity and elevation. We detected no significant effect of rugosity on the difference in recruitment between species, but O. lurida cover was significantly higher at 0 m MLLW; B. amphitrite cover was higher at +0.6 m MLLW. Baycrete deployed at 0 m MLLW will promote native species recruitment without promoting B. amphitrite.

Competition history

• AJAS 2020 Category not listed

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