Oyster reef communities Marine and Estuarine Goal Setting for South Florida Lake Kissimmee Vero Beach IN A NUTSHELL Tampa Bay • Oyster reefs provide habitat and play a major role in improving water quality and clarity. • People value oyster reefs as a place to find fish, for stabilizing sediments and shorelines, as critical habitat for larval stages of fish and crustaceans, and for contaminant monitoring. Stuart St. Lucie • Oyster reefs are vulnerable to damageLake caused byCanal overharvesting, dredging, sedimentation,Okeechobee and altered freshwater inflows. Caloosahatchee West Palm Fort • MyersWatershed management can improve oyster reef health Beach by reducing impacts caused by human development, changes in salinity, and contaminants.

Naples Fort Lauderdale

WHAT’S AT STAKE? Ten Thousand Miami Islands

Large, thick leaves Monroe Biscayne Large rhizome Oyster reefs help improve water quality which is important for “Phalanx” strategy Long-lived with slow turnover Bay High biomass tourism and recreational activites. Holds space Patchy owering Few larger seeds Homestead & Seeds germinate rapidly Oysters play a critical role in serving as habitat and food Florida City for many of the marine and coastal fish that people enjoy catching.

Straits of Florida Oysters are an important economic and ecologicalFlorida resource $ to coastal inhabitants. Bay Florida Keys

Dry Tortugas Key West

Oysters Maryland DNR

FOR MORE INFORMATION VISIT WWW.SOFLA-MARES.ORG OR EMAIL [email protected] OYSTER REEF COMMUNITIES ON THE SOUTHWEST FLORIDA SHELF

Oysters reef communities provide a number of valuable ecosystem services that in turn can be impacted by local, regional, and global influences depicted in the diagram below. Oysters form the base of the food chain in the estuarine portions of the Everglades and other estuaries in South Florida. Many of the CURRENT CONDITIONS crustaceans and fishes that are members of the oyster Long-term monitoring reflects a greater abundance reef community are important prey for fishes and of crustaceans and fishes associated with clusters of birds. The health and biodiversity of these oyster live oysters compared to clusters of dead oysters, and reef communities are directly linked to hydrology, that the structure provided by both living and dead oyster reef survival, and the form and structure of oyster shells supported a greater abundance than the oyster reef communities. Watershed alteration no shells. High and low salinity estuaries have been and restoration are two critical factors in the health demonstrated to possess distinct oyster abundance, of oyster reefs and associated environments of the distribution, and health responses. Southwest Florida Shelf.

Marine and Estuarine Goal Setting for South Florida Characterization of the Southwest Florida Shelf Everglades Subregion Far-eld Inuences

Disease Atmospheric Changes Temperature Extreme Events Sea Level Rise

2

Rainfall Atmospheric Wind Deposition Wind Storms Storms

Sheet ow Nutrients Nutrients Tidal Creeks Runo Pollutants Rivers Invasives

0 m Currents Phytoplankton Dwarf Marginal and eddies Diatoms Oyster- Oyster Mangrove Mangrove Mangrove Bars Forest Forest Islands Inner Bay 5 m Sand and Mud Flats Shelf Freshwater Mangrove Forest Carbonate Mud Break Spring Mesophotic coral ecosystem Shelf Slope 200 km

MANAGEMENT ACTIONS

Management actions are activities to promote use and that protect and conserve natural resources. They consist of gathering information, decision-making, and program implementation that are carried out by agencies responsible for making policies and implementing management actions that affect oyster reef communities.

One example of how oyster reefs are being managed comes from the Caloosahatchee estuary. Salinity has been identified as a major oyster reef stressor in the estuary. The Army Corps of Engineers and the Healthy oyster reefs provide habitat for animals and plants such as the mangroves shown here. South Florida Water Management District are using this information Changes in salinity from freshwater flows can in making management decisions about freshwater releases from alter the health of these communities. Lake Okeechobee and dredging activities in the region.

FOR MORE INFORMATION VISIT WWW.SOFLA-MARES.ORG OR EMAIL [email protected] 06/12