Field Science Manual: Oyster Restoration Station 1 Copyright © 2016 New York Harbor Foundation Contents All rights reserved Published by Background 5 New York Harbor Foundation Introduction 13 Battery Maritime Building, Slip 7 10 South Street Teacher’s Timetable 15 New York, NY 10004 The Billion Oyster Project Curriculum and The Expedition Community Enterprise for Restoration Retrieving the ORS 19 Science (BOP-CCERS) aims to improve STEM education in public schools by linking teaching and learning to ecosystem Protocols 1–5: 25 restoration and engaging students in hands-on environmental field science Site Conditions during their regular school day. BOP-CCERS Oyster Measurement is a research-based partnership initiative between New York Harbor Foundation, Mobile Trap Pace University, New York City Depart- Settlement Tiles ment of Education, Columbia University Lamont-Doherty Earth Observatory, New Water Quality York Academy of Sciences, University of Maryland Center for Environmental Science, New York Aquarium, The River Returning the ORS to the Water 69 Project, and Good Shepherd Services. and Cleaning Up Our work is supported by the National Science Foundation through grant #DRL1440869. Appendix Mobile Species ID 77 Any opinions, findings, and conclusions or recommendations expressed in this Sessile Species ID 103 material are those of the author(s) and Data Sheets 135 do not necessarily reflect the views of the National Science Foundation. This material is based upon work supported by the National Science Foundation under Grant Number NSF EHR DRL 1440869/PI Lauren Birney. Any opinions, findings, and conclusions or recommendations expressed in this material are those of the author(s) and do not necessarily reflectthe views of the National Science Foundation. 2 3 Sessile Species ID 102 103 Oyster Drill A small pale-colored shell with sharply Blue Mussel Blue-black with two hinged shells that open Urosalpinx Cinerea pointed cone and parallel ridges around Mytilus Edulis to feed, found in clumps attached to hard shell. Predator of oysters and mussels. intertidal and shallow substrata. Category: Mollusks Category: Mollusks Subcategory: Gastropods Habitat: Found in shallow subtidal marine Subcategory Bivalves Habitat: Found in the intertidal and shallow Status: Native, and estuarine regions in association with Status: Native, subtidal in clusters to rocky substrates non-endemic bivalve and barnacle beds. non-endemic or pier pilings. Individuals attach to the Phylum: Mollusca Phylum: Mollusca substrate using sticky byssal threads. Class: Gastropoda Diet: Filter feeders, ingesting microscopic Class: Bivalvia Family: Muricidae algae, zooplankton and detritus particles Order: Mytilida Diet: Mussels are filter feeders, ingesting rock snails from the water. Family: Mytiliidae bacteria, plankton and small detritus mussels particles suspended in the water. Morphology: Has a knobbly, sharply pointed spiraled shell, usually with 5 spiral Morphology: A bivalve (two-shelled) turns or whorls. Thick, rounded ribs or mollusk with smooth outer shells with a costae (numbering 9-12) run from the glossy blue-black coloration. Size up to 3 shell opening to the pointed end of the cm in shell length. spiral. Shell coloration is usually off-white to yellowish, sometimes with brown 3cm–3.5cm streaks, whilst the interior is colored purple, red-brown or yellow. The aperture is oval 3cm shaped with an open canal at the base. Size is up to 30-35 mm in length. 104 105 Ribbed Mussel Green-brown bivalves found in muddy Slipper Snails Whitish single-shelled molluscs found in Geukensia Demissa intertidal areas with ribs running the length Crepidula Spp (Eastern Slipper Snail C. Pla- shallow nearshore habitats, with smooth, of each shell. na and Atlantic Slipper Snail C. Fornicata) curved upper shells. Category: Mollusks Status: Native, Habitat: Found in the intertidal zone of Category: Molluscs Habitat: Two species of small gastropod non-endemic marine and brackish waters attached Status: Native, mollusk found in the low intertidal to Class: Bivalvia to marsh plants or rocky substrates or non-endemic subtidal associated with rocks, pier pilings Family: Mytiliidae, embedded in sediment. Class: Gastropoda and oyster beds. Mussels Order: Litterinimorpha Diet: A filter feeder that ingests plankton Family: Calyptraeidae, Diet: Graze on algae and detritus found on and detritus from the water column. slipper or boatsnails hard substrates. Morphology: The ribbed mussel has two Morphology: Both species have a curved, long, oval-shaped shells colored green to smooth upper shell, rounder in C. fornicata, brown, with distinct ribs running the length and a platform extending half way across of each shell. The inner shell is often tinted the shell opening on the underside. The purple. Size up to 10 cm in shell length. shell of C. plana is typically white to off-white, with the shell of C. fornicata 10cm showing darker color variations up to beige with brown markings. Size up to 30 mm in C. plana, up to 25 mm in C. fornicata. 3cm 106 107 Eastern Mudsnail Brown to black cone-shaped spiraled shell Northern Rock Barnacle Barnacles with six broad and low whitish Ilyanassa Obsoleta found in large numbers in muddy habitats. Semibalanus Balanoides plates arranged in a ring around a central diamond-shaped plate. Cemented to hard Category: Mollusks Habitat: Abundant in intertidal estuarine Category: Crustaceans substrata and usually found in clumps. Subcategory: Gastropods areas with muddy substrates. Subcategory: Barnacles Status: Native, Status: Non-endemic Habitat: Inhabits shallow intertidal and non-endemic Diet: Feeds on algae, worms and detritus Phylum: Arthropoda subtidal marine areas, cemented to hard Phylum: Mollusca within the muddy sediment. Class: Crustacea substrata such as rocks and pier pilings. Class: Gastropoda Order: Sessilia Order: Neogastropoda Morphology: The shell is whorled and cone- Family: Archaeobalanidae Diet: Barnacles are filter feeders, feeding Family: Nassariidae, shaped with a brown to black coloration. on algae, zooplankton and detritus dog whelks Shell surface is covered with beaded line particles in the water column. patterns and deep sutures between each whorl. Size up to 25 mm in shell length. Morphology: Six broad calcium carbonate plates with a low overall profile and diamond-shaped opening covered by a calcium carbonate operculum. Soft parts between plates are white or pinkish. Like all barnacles, individuals are usually found in clusters as they prefer to settle near other 2.5cm barnacles out of the plankton. Up to 25 mm 0.5cm in width. 108 109 Ivory Barnacle Barnacle with whitish plates forming a Mud Tube Worm Tube-dwelling reddish colored segmented Amphibalanus Eburneus steep cone, with soft parts often colored Streblospio Benedicti worm up to 6 mm in length. or striped. Found in clumps on hard Category: Crustaceans substrata. Category: Worms Habitat: In the Order Polychaeta (marine Subcategory: Barnacles Status: Native, segmented worms). Lives in fine sandy Status: Native, Habitat: Found cemented to hard substrata non-endemic and silty sediments, building tubes of non-endemic such as rocks and pier pilings in the Class: Polychaet sediment and mucus. Phylum: Arthropoda intertidal and shallow subtidal, preferring Subclass: Sedentaria Class: Crustacea brackish waters. Order: Spionida Diet: Feeds on detritus on the sediment Order: Sessilia Family: Spionidae surface. Family: Balanidae Diet: Barnacles are filter feeders, feeding on algae, zooplankton and detritus Morphology: Head segment is cone- particles in the water column. shaped with four eyes, one pair of tenta- cles and two pairs of gills. The remaining Morphology: The calcium carbonate plates body segments each have one pair of forming the outer armor are form a steep parapodia - paddle-like appendages. Body cone. The soft parts in between plates may coloration is a reddish brown, with dark be striped in purple, yellow or off-white. green coloration around the gills. Size up to Size is up to 25 mm in height and width. 6 mm in length. 0.6cm 2.5cm 110 111 Hard Tube Worms Worms living inside small whitish hard Tube-Building Polychaete Bristled worm with two long frontal Serpulid and Spirorbid Worms tubes that are either coiled (spirorbid Polydora Cornuta (formerly Polydora Ligni) appendages living inside muddy tubes on worms) or straight (serpulid worms). sediment-covered surfaces. Category: Worms Category: Worms Status: Native, Habitat: Found attached to hard substrata Status: Native, Habitat: Builds mud-covered detrital tubes non-endemic such as rocks, pier pilings and oyster origin uncertain in the intertidal and shallow subtidal Phylum: Annelida shells. Class: Polychaeta waters of estuaries. Naturally prefers Class: Polychaeta Subclass: Sedentaria muddy clay substrates and can be found Order: Sabellida Diet: Filter feeders, ingesting microscopic Order: Spionida on settlement tiles where sediment has Family: Serpulidae, algae, zooplankton and detritus particles Family: Spionidae accumulated. serpulid worms from the water. Subfamily: Spirorbidae, Diet: Feeds on small food particles on the spirorbid worms Morphology: Construct hard, off-white sediment surface using their pair of long tubes of calcium carbonate that frontal palps. are coiled (F. Spirorbidae) or largely straight or serpentine (SF. Serpulidae). Morphology: Segmented body around 1-2 Tube length up to 30 mm in serpulids, up to cm long with chetae (bristles) on each 25 mm across in spirorbids . segment. P. cornuta may be difficult