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Guidelines for evaluating performance of oyster habitat restoration should include tidal emersion: reply to Baggett et al.
Author(s) -
Walles Brenda,
Fodrie F. Joel,
Nieuwhof Sil,
Jewell Oliver J. D.,
Herman Peter M. J.,
Ysebaert Tom
Publication year - 2016
Publication title -
restoration ecology
Language(s) - English
Resource type - Journals
SCImago Journal Rank - 1.214
H-Index - 100
eISSN - 1526-100X
pISSN - 1061-2971
DOI - 10.1111/rec.12328
Subject(s) - oyster , intertidal zone , reef , habitat , estuary , fishery , environmental science , restoration ecology , marine habitats , oceanography , salinity , ecology , biology , geology
Baggett et al. (2015) identified a set of three universal environmental variables to be monitored for evaluating all oyster habitat restoration projects: salinity, temperature, and dissolved oxygen. Perhaps evidencing a bias toward subtidal reefs, this set of parameters omits another first‐order environmental factor, tidal emersion. Intertidal oyster reefs can be the dominant reef habitat in estuaries, with clear zonation in oyster performance across the intertidal exposure gradient. Therefore, we propose to include tidal emersion as a fourth universal environmental parameter when designing and evaluating oyster restoration projects to better encompass the whole environmental spectrum along which reefs occur.