Category Archives: 2015 Student Posts

First Draft: Guiding Stakeholder Communication in the Choptank

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For my first draft, I’ve decided to combine a short speech that I would give to the stakeholders to explain the purpose of my project, and a draft of what the handout/PowerPoint would discuss. I’m still working on how to best present the information to stakeholders; I’m thinking of making it more visual and less wordy. But formatting will come later, the content expresses the important points of the OysterFuture workgroups that I wanted to get across: Goals of the workgroups, roles as stakeholders and the role of modeling. Under advice from Troy Hartley, my adviser, I switched out the last topic from social science to modeling in order to focus more on actual end results of the workgroups instead of the social science process.

Logo for the Coastal SEES NSF project on oysters in the Choptank River, Maryland

Logo for the Coastal SEES NSF project on oysters in the Choptank River, Maryland

TG speech: Thanks for participating in this OysterFutures workshop group; whether you realize it or not yet, you are an essential and valuable aspect of this research; it could not happen without you. At the end of this process, this group will be making recommendations to Maryland DNR for oyster policy in the Choptank, so what we do here is incredibly important.

We figure your friends, family and co-workers outside this group will be interested in what exactly you are participating in and we want you to talk to them! We realize however that there are many interconnected and complicated issues involved, so we’ve compiled some talking points that sum up major aspects of the project. During your discussions, use them as tools; places to jump start the conversation with others. We hope you share things that matter to you and that these outside discussions foster great conversations in this workgroup.

The points cover three key aspects of these workgroups. First are the overall goals of this workgroup, why we are all here. Second is going over who is involved and what are all of your roles. Third is the role of modeling in scientific research. We give you a lot of options and things to think over for future meetings and for when you talk to others, but don’t feel inclined to use all/any of these. We hope you’re sharing things that matter to you and will make an impact on the results of this project

(Beginning of the handout/PowerPoint)

Key Definitions

  • Case study – sometimes, representative example of a larger issue/area. Other times, a study that focuses on a specific region/topic and isn’t necessarily applicable to other regions/topics.
  • Modeling– a way to use existing data to make a particular part or feature of the world easier to understand, define, quantify, visualize, or simulate. Uncertainty in modeling is GOOD.
  • NSF – National Science Foundation, an independent federal agency with the goal of promoting the progress of science which they do through the support of all fields of fundamental science and engineering
  • Stakeholder – someone who has a vested interest in some topic. It affects them economically, socially or culturally, or some combination of the three
  • Sustainability – in this case, sustainability refers to the desire to create an active and economically beneficial fishery while protecting and respecting the biological needs of the oysters

CATEGORIES

1) Goals of the Coastal SEES OysterFutures workshop

a. Improve the integration of science and stakeholder goals for the region

b. Improve the sustainability of the natural resource policy for the region

2) Who is involved and what is my role as a stakeholder?

a) Stakeholders involved include representatives from

  • Watermen from Talbot and Dorchester counties
  • Aquaculturists
  • Seafood buyers
  • State Agency – Maryland Department of Natural Resources
  • Oyster Recovery Partnership
  • Federal Agency – NOAA
  • Environmental Citizens Groups
  • Recreational fishing
  • Scientists – mainly serving a role as observers with some input during meetings
  • Facilitators – the men running the meetings, maintaining organization

b) Your role in this process includes

  • Sharing your opinion on current oyster management in the Choptank
  • Sharing your firsthand experiences with the fishery, both now and from the past
  • Listening to the recommendations and advice of scientists; but not necessarily following them
  • Understanding the role of modeling in science and how it is an asset
    • Especially the uncertainty of modeling
  • Identifying unifying ideas/goals you have with other stakeholders
  • Being open and honest through the whole process

3) Role of Modeling

  • Used in the later part of the meetings
  • Participatory –> meaning you are a part of adding information to and formatting the model.
  • Model will project the policy objectives the stakeholders deem important –> meaning the model will incorporate human uses of the ecosystem
  • Includes factors involved in the interactions between physical conditions (ex: water temperature, dissolved oxygen), biological aspects of organisms (ex: rate of disease) and humans (ex: catch numbers, policy decisions)

This just scratches the surface of the subjects that these workgroups will hopefully address. Just remember, when you talk about this project, share things that matter to you and your role in the process. You represent the best communicators we have for the project so thank you for your dedication and passion to oysters in the Choptank!

Project proposal

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Nutrient pollution in Chesapeake Bay continues to be an environmental problem despite decades of effort to reduce nutrient inputs. “Nutrient bioextraction” using bivalve aquaculture has been proposed as a method for mitigating upstream pollution, especially for nitrogen (N). However, the total amount of N that can be removed, as well as potential negative environmental impacts, are still poorly quantified for oyster aquaculture. As a result uncertainties and debate remain about the effectiveness of using oysters for nutrient bioextraction. To help resolve this debate, my MS research quantified N bioextraction, as well as processes that returned N to the water column, at a commercial oyster farm in Chesapeake Bay. My communication project aims to present my conclusions in an engaging way using stop-motion photography animation.

I plan to target two specific stakeholder groups with this project: 1) policymakers and scientists involved in aquaculture and/or coastal water quality; and 2) people involved in the bivalve aquaculture industry.  The latter group—the aquaculture industry at large—may be relatively less informed about the nutrient bioextraction debate, and the science behind nutrient pollution in general. Thus, for this group, my animation will need to clearly explain the concepts of a) nutrient pollution and b) nutrient bioextraction. I expect relevant policymakers and scientists are already knowledgeable about these concepts, but would be interested in learning about my research results pertaining to the effectiveness of oyster aquaculture for nutrient bioextraction. Thus, for this group, my animation will need to clearly present quantified results, using language and depth of explanation appropriate for scientists and policymakers. To actively engage both groups, my animation will thus need to clearly explain: a) what is eutrophication; b) what is nutrient bioextraction; and c) how effective was the farm I studied at extracting nutrients.

The animation will be 1-2 minutes, and will be created using paper cut outs, photographed with a digital SLR camera, and produced (with sound) in iMovie or a similar program.  Examples of this animation method can be found at creaturecast.org, which hosts animations of ecological concepts made primarily by students at Brown University. Once it is produced, I will disseminate the animation by showing it at live presentations including the VA Sea Grant annual symposium and a NOAA brown bag lunch, which I am planning to give in spring 2016 with the help of my mentor, who is a NOAA scientist. I will also post the animation online (e.g., on my personal website), and will advertise the link in appropriate venues, possibly including the University of Virginia Department of Environmental Sciences homepage, the VA Sea Grant webpage, and industry webpages. Putting the animation on the internet will communicate the issue to an even wider audience. Although the main theme of the animation is nutrient bioextraction, the story reinforces understanding of nutrient pollution, which is still poorly understood by the general public. Oysters are an increasingly trendy food, and the public is eager to learn more about them, so an animation about oyster aquaculture specifically is a good vehicle to deliver this message.

 

Project Proposal: Math can be cool (and help blue crabs too!)

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Submerged aquatic vegetation (SAV), such as seagrasses, within Chesapeake Bay provide protection and resources for fishery species like the blue crab Callinectes sapidus (Duffy & Baltz 1998). In Chesapeake Bay, seagrasses have been declining since the 1960s and 1970s due to both anthropogenic and natural disturbances (for example, Orth & Moore 1983). Increased fragmentation of and decreased shoot density within seagrass beds may negatively impact the recruitment of blue crab postlarvae that use seagrasses as nursery habitat (Stockhausen & Lipcius 2003). In areas where seagrasses have declined, macroalgae may provide valuable habitat for organisms like the blue crab. Gracilaria vermiculophylla is an exotic, coarsely branching, red macroalga originating from the Western Pacific (Ohmi 1956) that has colonized shallow coastal areas of North America and Europe (Bellorin et al. 2004; Freshwater et al. 2006; Thomsen et al. 2006a, b, 2007; Gulbransen et al. 2012; Miller 2012) and is found in lower Chesapeake Bay. It is possible that this exotic alga may fill some of the ecological roles of seagrasses in these areas where they have declined (Rodriquez 2006). Because it is a structured nursery habitat, G. vermiculophylla provides refuges for juvenile blue crabs and other species that require structure (Beck et al. 2001; Lipcius et al. 2007; Thomsen 2010). Juvenile crab survival is as great or greater in G. vermiculophylla compared to Zostera marina (the dominant seagrass in lower Chesapeake Bay) or unvegetated habitat (Johnston & Lipcius 2012).

My dissertation research aims to determine the value of G. vermiculophylla as a nursery habitat for juvenile blue crabs in the York River, a tributary of lower Chesapeake Bay. My research involves exploratory surveys to determine where the alga is and how much there is at randomly selected sites, how many juvenile crabs are using the alga as habitat compared to seagrass, and differences in prey resources between the habitats. Other field and laboratory studies focus on habitat preferences of juvenile crabs as well as growth rates. Finally, the development of a system of equations to describe habitat use of juvenile crabs will allow me to simulate how the changing nursery habitat landscape in Chesapeake Bay will impact juvenile crabs and, thus, the adult blue crab population.

The key stakeholder groups that might benefit from my research, particularly the model, are managers and watermen in the blue crab fishery. The commercial blue crab fishery in Chesapeake Bay is tightly controlled by managers, but management tends to focus only on mature crabs (those that can be fished). There seems to be a disconnect between the way blue crabs are managed and the ecology of the species in that juvenile crabs and their habitat requirements are often ignored by managers. My work seeks to link habitat information with population information, which may lead to a better-informed stock-recruit model for blue crabs in Chesapeake Bay and, therefore, better-informed management strategies that will allow watermen to continue to harvest blue crabs in the future.

To better communicate my model to all audiences, but particularly to managers and watermen, I will create a series of slides using a tool like Prezi (https://prezi.com/) that will help explain my model step-by-step using pictures and simple graphs connected to each variable within the equations. Since the equations of my model are very similar to each other, I will likely focus on one and then zoom out to show the entire model. Hopefully this will allow the audience to understand what the model is doing without getting bogged down in terminology. This also will reduce the loss of interest that many audiences have when presented with a slide of 10 equations. I plan to present this initially at the 2016 VA Sea Grant Participants’ Symposium alongside a poster of related research.

References:

Beck, MW, KL Heck, KW Able, DL Childers, DB Eggleston, BM Gillanders, et al. 2001. The identification, conservation, and management of estuarine and marine nurseries for fish and invertebrates. BioScience 51: 633–641.

Bellorin, AM, MC Oliveira, and EC Oliveira. 2004. Gracilaria vermiculophylla: a western Pacific species of Gracilariaceae (Rhodophyta) first recorded from the eastern Pacific. Phycological Research 52: 69–79.

Duffy, KC, and DM Baltz. 1998. Comparison of fish assemblages associated with native and exotic submerged macrophytes in the Lake Pontchartrain estuary, USA. Journal of Experimental Marine Biology and Ecology 223: 199–221.

Freshwater, DW, F Montgomery, J Greene, R Hamner, M Williams, and P Whitfield. 2006. Distribution and identification of an invasive Gracilaria species that is hampering commercial fishing operations in southeastern North Carolina, USA. Biological Invasions 8: 631–637.

Gulbransen, DJ, KJ McGlathery, M Marklund, JN Norris, and CFD Gurgel. 2012. Gracilaria vermiculophylla (Rhodophyta, Gracilariales) in Virginia coastal bays, USA: cox1 analysis reveals high genetic richness of an introduced macroalga. Journal of Phycology 48: 1278-1283.

Johnston, CA, and RN Lipcius. 2012. Exotic macroalga Gracilaria vermiculophylla provides superior nursery habitat for native blue crab in Chesapeake Bay. Marine Ecology Progress Series 467: 137–146.

Lipcius RN, DB Eggleston, KL Heck, Jr., RD Seitz, J van Montfrans. 2007. Ecology of postlarval and young juvenile blue crabs. In: Kennedy VS, Cronin LE (eds) The blue crab, Callinectes sapidus. University of Maryland Sea Grant Press, College Park, MD, pp. 535−564.

Miller, KA. 2012. Seaweeds of California: Updates of California Seaweed Species List. pp. 1-59. Berkeley: University of California Jepson Herbarium.

Ohmi, H. 1956. Contributions to the knowledge of Gracilariaceae from Japan. II. On a new species of the genus Gracilariopsis, with some considerations on its ecology. Bulletin of the Faculty of Fisheries Hokkaido University 6: 271−279.

Orth, RJ, and KA Moore. 1983. Chesapeake Bay: An unprecedented decline in submerged aquatic vegetation. Science 222: 51–53.

Rodriguez, LF. 2006. Can invasive species facilitate native species? Evidence of how, when, and why these impacts occur. Biological Invasions 8: 927-939.

Stockhausen, WT, and RN Lipcius. 2003. Simulated effects of seagrass loss and restoration on settlement and recruitment of blue crab postlarvae and juveniles in the York River, Chesapeake Bay. Bulletin of Marine Science 72: 409-422.

Thomsen, M. 2010. Experimental evidence for positive effects of invasive seaweed on native invertebrates via habitat-formation in a seagrass bed. Aquatic Invasions 5: 341-346.

Thomsen, MS, CFD Gurgel, S Fredericq, KJ McGlathery. 2006a. Gracilaria vermiculophylla (Rhodophyta, Gracilariales) in Hog Island Bay, Virginia: a cryptic alien and invasive macroalgae and taxonomic corrections. Journal of Phycology 42: 139–41.

Thomsen, MS, KJ McGlathery, and AC Tyler. 2006b. Macroalgal distribution patterns in a shallow, soft-bottom lagoon, with emphasis on the nonnative Gracilaria vermiculophylla and Codium fragile. Estuaries and Coasts 29: 465–473.

Thomsen, M, P Staehr, C Nyberg, D Krause-Jensen, S Schwaerter, and B Silliman. 2007. Gracilaria vermiculophylla (Ohmi) Papenfuss, 1967 (Rhodophyta, Gracilariaceae) in northern Europe, with emphasis on Danish conditions, and what to expect in the future. Aquatic Invasions 2: 83-94.