HR: 14:30h
AN: NB43C-05 INVITED     [Abstracts]
TI: A Holistic Approach to the Conservation and Propagation of Freshwater, Brackish and Estuarine Bivalves for Ecosystem Services.
AU: * Kreeger, D
EM: danielle.kreeger@drbc.state.nj.us
AF: Delaware Estuary Program, P.O. Box 7068, 25 State Police Drive, West Trenton, NJ 08628 United States
AU: * Kreeger, D
EM: danielle.kreeger@drbc.state.nj.us
AF: Academy of Natural Sciences, 1900 Ben Franklin Parkway, Philadelphia, PA 19103
AB: Shellfish restoration is increasingly valued in estuaries such as Chesapeake Bay where oyster populations are known to function as living biofilters, performing critical ecosystem services. Less studied are the services rendered by other suspension-feeding bivalves that reside in fringing marshes around these estuaries, in brackish and freshwater tidal portions, and in freshwater tributaries. The potential benefits contributed by other native bivalves will be discussed with two case studies from the Delaware basin. These are the ribbed mussel (Geukensia demissa ), which is abundant in brackish and marine tidal marshes, and the unionid mussel (Elliptio complanata ), which is abundant in many rivers of the system. Ribbed mussels are abundant enough to filter a large portion of the tidal prism flushing marshes, facilitating the role that these systems play as a sink for suspended solids and nutrients. Similarly, data from the lower Brandywine River suggests that a vestigial community of freshwater unionids remains sufficiently abundant to have a measurable beneficial effect on water quality by removing more than 25 metric tons of suspended particulates per year. Hence, the conservation and propagation of freshwater unionids can yield benefits that extend beyond current interest that is focused on protecting their biodiversity. Future efforts to protect or reclaim water quality and ecosystem integrity may benefit by a basin-wide, holistic approach that promotes integrated "biofiltration services" by native bivalves living from the headwaters to the coastal shelf.
DE: 4804 Benthic processes/benthos
DE: 4805 Biogeochemical cycles (1615)
DE: 4815 Ecosystems, structure and dynamics
DE: 4817 Food chains
DE: 9815 Notices and announcements
SC: North American Benthological Society [NB]
MN: 2005 Joint Assembly