Historical ecology with real numbers: past and present extent and biomass of an imperilled estuarine habitat

Proceedings of the Royal Society B: Biological Sciences - Tập 279 Số 1742 - Trang 3393-3400 - 2012
Philine S. E. zu Ermgassen1, Mark Spalding2, Brady Blake3, Loren D. Coen4, Brett R. Dumbauld5, Steve Geiger6, Jonathan H. Grabowski7, Raymond E. Grizzle8, Mark W. Luckenbach9, Kay A. McGraw10, W.S. Rodney11, Jennifer L. Ruesink12, Sean P. Powers13, R. Dan Brumbaugh14
1Department of Zoology, University of Cambridge, Cambridge, CB2 3EJ, UK
2Global Marine Team, The Nature Conservancy, Department of Zoology, University of Cambridge, Cambridge, CB2 3EJ, UK
3Washington State Department of Fish and Wildlife, Point Whitney Shellfish Laboratory, 1000 Point Whitney Road, Brinnon, WA 98320, USA
4Department of Biological Sciences, Florida Atlantic University, c/o Harbor Branch Oceanography Institute, 5775 Old Dixie Highway, Fort Pierce, FL 34946, USA
5USDA, Agricultural Research Service, Hatfield Marine Science Center, 2030 SE Marine Science Drive, Newport, OR 97365, USA
6Fish and Wildlife Research Institute, Florida Fish and Wildlife Conservation Commission, 100 Eighth Avenue SE, St Petersburg, FL 33701, USA
7Marine Science Center, Northeastern University, 430 Nahant Road, Nahant, MA 01908, USA
8Department of Biological Sciences, University of New Hampshire, Durham, NH, 03824, USA
9Virginia Institute of Marine Science, College of William and Mary, PO Box 1346, Gloucester Point, VA 23062, USA.
10NOAA Restoration Center, 1315 East West Highway, Silver Spring, MD 20910, USA
11Texas Parks and Wildlife Department, Dickinson Marine Laboratory, 1502 FM 517 East, Dickinson, TX 77539, USA
12Department of Biology, University of Washington, Box 351800, Seattle, WA 98195-1800, USA
13Department of Marine Sciences, University of South Alabama, Dauphin Island Sea Laboratory 101 Bienville Boulevard, Dauphin Island, AL 36528, USA
14The Nature Conservancy, 127 Industrial Drive, Big Pine Key, FL 33042, USA

Tóm tắt

Historic baselines are important in developing our understanding of ecosystems in the face of rapid global change. While a number of studies have sought to determine changes in extent of exploited habitats over historic timescales, few have quantified such changes prior to late twentieth century baselines. Here, we present, to our knowledge, the first ever large-scale quantitative assessment of the extent and biomass of marine habitat-forming species over a 100-year time frame. We examined records of wild native oyster abundance in the United States from a historic, yet already exploited, baseline between 1878 and 1935 (predominantly 1885–1915), and a current baseline between 1968 and 2010 (predominantly 2000–2010). We quantified the extent of oyster grounds in 39 estuaries historically and 51 estuaries from recent times. Data from 24 estuaries allowed comparison of historic to present extent and biomass. We found evidence for a 64 per cent decline in the spatial extent of oyster habitat and an 88 per cent decline in oyster biomass over time. The difference between these two numbers illustrates that current areal extent measures may be masking significant loss of habitat through degradation.

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Thông tin xuất bản

Proceedings of the Royal Society B: Biological Sciences

Tập 279 Số 1742

3393-3400

Thông tin tác giả