DOES CULTCH TYPE AND RESTORATION HISTORY INFLUENCE DECAPOD CRUSTACEAN COLONIZATION OF OYSTER REEFS? By MEGAN SCHERRER LAMB A THESIS PRESENTED TO THE GRADUATE SCHOOL OF THE UNIVERSITY OF FLORIDA IN PARTIAL FULFILLMENT OF THE REQUIREMENTS FOR THE DEGREE OF MASTER OF SCIENCE UNIVERSITY OF FLORIDA 2018 © 2018 Megan Scherrer Lamb To the oysters ACKNOWLEDGMENTS I would like to thank my advisor, Dr. Behringer, for taking me on as a distance student and providing me with counsel and advice. Thank you to my committee members Dr. Andy Kane and Dr. Shirley Baker who provided valuable input and support. I would like to thank my lab mates for welcoming me to the lab and their willingness to help me, even though they saw me more over a computer screen than in person. Thank you to the Apalachicola National Estuarine Research Reserve which has provided support, water quality data, and equipment use to allow me to complete this project, especially J. Garwood and C. Snyder for technical assistance. Thank you to C. Jones and J. Shields at the Florida Department of Agriculture and Consumer Services for answering questions and providing fossilized material used in collectors. Additional shell material was provided by T. Ward and Paddy’s Raw Bar. I would like to thank D. Armentrout, T. Griffith, M. K. Davis, M. Davis, C. Snyder, E. Bourque, M. Christopher, K. Peter, H. Heinke-Green, S. Simpson, and W. Annis for assistance with field sample collection. Thanks to J. Collee from UF-IFAS Consulting provided assistance with statistical methods. I would like to thank my parents for all the support, encouragement, and education they have provided me with over my entire lifetime. Thank you to my sister, brother-in-law, and nieces who have also given me much encouragement, advice, and sent care packages. My friends have been loyal and understanding during this journey and I cannot express my gratitude enough to them. Finally, I could not have made it through graduate school without my husband Dave. I cannot thank you enough for all you have done to support our family while I have gone back to school, so I’ll just say thank you and I love you. 4 TABLE OF CONTENTS page ACKNOWLEDGMENTS .................................................................................................. 4 LIST OF TABLES ............................................................................................................ 7 LIST OF FIGURES .......................................................................................................... 8 LIST OF ABBREVIATIONS ............................................................................................. 9 ABSTRACT ................................................................................................................... 10 CHAPTER 1 INTRODUCTION .................................................................................................... 12 Need for Better Understanding of Restoration Outcomes ....................................... 12 Oysters: Global Bivalves ......................................................................................... 12 Oysters and Ecosystem Services ........................................................................... 14 Degradation of Reefs .............................................................................................. 17 Interest in Restoration ............................................................................................. 19 Oyster Reefs in the Apalachicola Bay: Fishery, Management, and Collapse ......... 21 Gaps in Knowledge ................................................................................................. 22 2 PATTERNS OF COLONIZATION OF DECAPOD CRUSTACEANS TO NATURAL AND NEWLY RESTORED OYSTER REEFS IN APALACHICOLA BAY, FLORIDA ....................................................................................................... 26 Introduction: Ecosystem Services Provided by Oyster Reefs and Interest in Restoration Outcomes ......................................................................................... 26 Methods .................................................................................................................. 29 Study Site Selection ......................................................................................... 29 Decapod Crustacean Collection, Preservation, and Identification .................... 30 External Parasite Load of Xanthid Crabs ......................................................... 31 Statistical Analyses .......................................................................................... 31 Water Quality .................................................................................................... 32 Results .................................................................................................................... 32 Decapod Crustacean Species Abundance ....................................................... 32 Decapod Crustacean Species Richness .......................................................... 33 Decapod Crustacean Species Biodiversity ....................................................... 34 Size Structure of Most Abundant Crustacean Species ..................................... 34 Gender and Reproductive Status of Most Abundant Crustacean Species ....... 34 External Parasite Prevalence in Select Xanthid Crabs ..................................... 35 Water Quality Monitoring .................................................................................. 36 Discussion .............................................................................................................. 37 5 Abundance, Richness, and Biodiversity of Restored and Historic Oyster Reef Communities ......................................................................................... 37 Restored Oyster Reef Decapod Crustacean Reproduction and Colonization .. 38 Influence of Nearby Communities Oyster Reef Colonization ............................ 39 Parasite Prevalence amongst Xanthid Crabs ................................................... 41 Limitations of Present Methods and Future Directions ..................................... 42 3 CONCLUSIONS ..................................................................................................... 65 APPENDIX: SUPPLEMENTARY MATERIALS ............................................................. 68 LIST OF REFERENCES ............................................................................................... 72 BIOGRAPHICAL SKETCH ............................................................................................ 81 6 LIST OF TABLES Table page 2-1 Collector deployment and retrieval dates. .......................................................... 60 2-2 Results for site age, substrate, and interactive effects between the two on species abundance, richness, and biodiversity by sampling period. ................... 61 2-3 Percent ovigerous E. depressus females by site and sampling period. .............. 62 2-4 Percent ovigerous P. armatus females by site and sampling period. ................. 62 2-5 Results for site age, substrate, and interactive effects between the two on parasite prevalence in E. depressus and P. herbstii by sampling period. ........... 63 2-6 Water quality parameter mean, variance, and standard deviation measured at all sites at each retrieval/deployment date. ..................................................... 64 A-1 Complete list of decapod crustaceans found in collectors deployed in Apalachicola Bay sites over entire study period. ................................................ 68 A-2 Species abundance. The total abundance of all decapod crustaceans found in each collector during each sampling period. ................................................... 69 A-3 Species richness. The total number of individual species found in each collector by site during each sampling period. .................................................... 70 A-4 Shannon-Weiner Biodiversity Index Calculations by site, collector number, and shell type throughout the sampling period. .................................................. 71 7 LIST OF FIGURES Figure page 1-1 The Apalachicola Bay. The Apalachicola Bay is in the Florida panhandle at the foot of the Apalachicola-Chattahoochee-Flint watershed. ............................ 24 1-2 Oyster bar habitat in the Apalachicola Bay. ........................................................ 25 2-1 Research sites. Map includes Apalachicola Bay oyster bars, research sites, and ANERR water quality stations. ..................................................................... 44 2-2 Green shell (left) compared to fossilized (right) oyster shell material ................. 45 2-3 Green shell collector (left) and fossilized shell collector (right) before deployment ......................................................................................................... 46 2-4 Collectors tied together prior to deployment. ...................................................... 47 2-5 Collectors stored in individual bins after retrieval to keep organisms with each collector. ............................................................................................................. 48 2-6 Subadult P. herbstii with mature L. panopaei infection. ...................................... 49 2-7 Decapod crustacean abundance at sites by substrate type. .............................. 50 2-8 Decapod crustacean species richness at sites by substrate type ......................