Loren D Coen

Florida Atlantic University, HBOI, 5775 Old Dixie Hwy Ft. Pierce FL 34946, USA · Dept. of Biological Sciences, and Harbor Branch Oceanographic Institute

Coastal areas are especially vulnerable to habitat loss, sea-level rise, and other climate change effects. Oyster-dominated eco-engineered reefs have been promoted as integral components of engineered habitats enhancing coastal resilience through provision of numerous ecological, morphological, and socio-economic services. However, the assessed ‘su...

The geographic boundaries of many important habitat-building shallow estuarine oyster (Family Ostreidae) spe- cies are poorly understood, especially in subtropical and tropical waters. These keystone species often have extensive historical and extant ranges, in part because of their ability to adapt to diverse environmental conditions and the tran...

Introduction

Gulf Coast communities and natural resources suffered extensive direct and indirect damage as a result of the largest accidental oil spill in US history, referred to as the Deepwater Horizon (DWH) oil spill. Notably, natural resources affected by this major spill include wetlands, coastal beaches and barrier islands, coastal and marine wildlife, se...

Gulf Coast communities and natural resources suffered extensive direct and indirect damage as a result of the largest accidental oil spill in US history, referred to as the Deepwater Horizon (DWH) oil spill. Notably, natural resources affected by this major spill include wetlands, coastal beaches and barrier islands, coastal and marine wildlife, se...

Bivalves, especially reef-forming species (see DeAlteris, 1988, and Figure 1 in Waldbusser et al., 2013), are important habitat formers in many estuaries worldwide (Kirby, 2004; Beck et al., 2009). Bivalve populations (e.g., mus-sels) often have positive synergies with other habitats such as sea grasses (Williams and Heck, 2001; Coen et al., 2011a)...

Habitat loss and disturbance are ranked globally as the greatest threats to biodiversity. Development and coastal population growth are the leading causes for habitat losses. Recently, the restoration of marine habitats has increased, especially with the goal of increasing non-consumptive ecosystem services derived from mangrove and submerged aquat...

Restoration of degraded ecosystems is an important societal goal, yet inadequate monitoring and the absence of clear performance metrics are common criticisms of many habitat restoration projects. Funding limitations can prevent adequate monitoring, but we suggest that the lack of accepted metrics to address the diversity of restoration objectives...

Review of Goreau, Thomas J., and Robert Kent Trench, editors. 2013. Innovative methods of marine ecosystem restoration. CRC Press, Boca Raton, Florida. xv + 296 p. $99.95, ISBN: 978-1-4665-5773-4.

Mosquito control insecticide use in the coastal zone coincides with the habitat and mariculture operations of commercially and ecologically important shellfish species. Few data are available regarding insecticide toxicity to shellfish early life stages, and potential interactions with abiotic stressors, such as low oxygen and increased CO2 (low pH...

Historically New York Harbor supported hundreds of square kilometers of oyster beds, yielding perhaps 700 million harvested oysters per year at its peak in the late 1880s (Kurlansky 2006, Royte 2006, Bain et al. 2007). By the 1920s, the beds had become unharvestable because of depletion of the resource and closures from raw sewage contamination (re...

Abstract: Biological fouling is the accumulation and growth of aquatic organisms on submerged surfaces. Fouling can reduce the operation time and quality of data from aquatic realtime sensors. The SCCF Marine Laboratory currently has seven 'River, Estuary and Coastal Observation Network' (RECON) real-time sensor arrays deployed in the waters throug...

Historic baselines are important in developing our understanding of ecosystems in the face of rapid global change. While a number of studies have sought to determine changes in extent of exploited habitats over historic timescales, few have quantified such changes prior to late twentieth century baselines. Here, we present, to our knowledge, the fi...

Blind Pass is an inlet that separates Sanibel and Captiva Islands in southwest Florida but has historically closed and opened by both anthropogenic and natural processes. In July 2010, a dredging project to open the small inlet between the two barrier islands was completed. The objective of this study was to use and supplement ongoing estuary-monit...

Native oyster reefs once dominated many estuaries, ecologically and economically. Centuries of resource extraction exacerbated by coastal degradation have pushed oyster reefs to the brink of functional extinction worldwide. We examined the condition of oyster reefs across 144 bays and 44 ecoregions; our comparisons of past with present abundances i...

Eastern oyster (Crassostrea virginica) habitat is increasingly being restored for the ecosystem services it provides rather than solely as a fishery resource. Community-based projects with the goal of ecological restoration have successfully constructed oyster reefs; however, the habitat benefits of these restoration efforts are usually not assesse...

Reefs and beds formed by oysters such as the Eastern oyster, Crassostrea virginica and the Olympia oyster, Ostrea lurida Carpenter 1864† were dominant features in many estuaries throughout their native ranges. Many of these estuaries no longer have healthy, productive reefs because of impacts from destructive fishing, sediment accumulation, polluti...

An important ecological role ascribed to oysters is the transfer of materials from the water column to the benthos as they feed on suspended particles (seston). This ecosystem service has been often touted as a major reason for many oyster restoration efforts, but empirical characterization and quantification of seston removal rates in the field ha...

The importance of restoring filter-feeders, such as the Eastern oyster Crassostrea virginica, to mitigate the effects of eutrophication (e.g. in Chesapeake Bay) is currently under debate. The argument that bivalve molluscs alone cannot control phytoplankton blooms and reduce hypoxia oversimplifies a more complex issue, namely that ecosystem enginee...

The use of various organophosphates to control mosquito populations is a common practice across the globe. We review the literature (LC50s) on dichlorvos, the primary breakdown product of Dibrom, and use laboratory and field experiments to determine the lethal and sublethal (bioassays) effects of dichlorvos on two widely distributed and ecologicall...

The most commonly used methods for measuring the amount of seston removed from the water column (uptake) by populations of suspension-feeding bivalve molluscs involve taking discrete water samples followed by laboratory analyses. Here we describe a new method based on in situ fluorometry that provides rapid measurement of seston removal rates. The...

Evaluating the success of habitat creation or restoration depends primarily on the selection of appropriate goals, relevant metrics and robust analytic approaches. For intertidal oyster reefs, the goal of restoring ecological function often is as important as the production of harvestable oysters, especially since oysters are the habitat. Assessing...

Most Atlantic and Gulf coast U.S. states with an oyster fishery have operated some form of oyster reef enhancement program over the past 50 years. Although programs were initially only directed at oyster fisheries augmentation, recent emphasis has shifted to include the restoration of their ecological functions. Furthermore, many of these programs...

Oyster shell is the preferred substrate for replanting oyster beds and restoring oyster reefs. If pathogens remain viable in tissues attached to shell, then planting shell may inadvertently serve as a vector for pathogen transmission. Limited local shell sources may exacerbate the problem by increasing the risk of spreading novel strains into new a...

To better understand how seagrasses influence the growth of northern and southern quahogs (Mercenaria mercenaria and Mercenaria campechiensis), we collected and compared the growth rates of clams from seagrasses and adjacent unvegetated locations along the Atlantic (Massachusetts and New Jersey) and Gulf of Mexico coasts (Alabama and Florida) using...

We estimated juvenile abundance arid predation potential for young-of-the-year (YOY) blue crabs Callinectes sapidus in upper- and lower-salinity marsh and submerged aquatic vegetation (SAV) 'nursery habitats' of Mobile Bay, Alabama, USA, and surrounding waters, and combined this information with previously published post-larval abundance data from...

Habitatrestoration encompasses a broad range of activities, emphasizing very different issues, goals, and approaches depending on the operational definition of ‘restoration’. This is particularly true for many shellfish (molluscan) dominated systems (e.g. oyster reefs, mussel beds, vermetid gastropod reefs). In contrast to other well-studied biogen...

Oyster reef restoration, protection, and construction are important to meeting harvest, water quality, and fish habitat goals. However, the strategies needed to achieve harvest and conservation goals have often been considered to be at odds. We argue that these goals are, in fact, compatible and that the same strategies will promote a sustainable h...

Larval supply and early postsettlement mortality are crucial to the maintenance of most marine populations. Larval supply may be especially important in regulating populations of blue crabs Callinectes sapidus because many larvae could be lost during long migrations between estuaries and offshore waters. We examined the relative contributions of di...

We developed a sampling methodology using a 24-m2 lift net to quantitatively sample intertidal oyster reefs as a part of a long-term study of their functional ecology. The method involved surrounding an area of oyster reef with a buried net at low tide, allowing the water level to rise, raising the net at high tide to trap motile organisms, allowin...

Although blue crab postlarvae have recently been found to be 10-100 times more abundant along Gulf coast (AL, MS and TX) than along Atlantic Coast (DE, VA, NC, and SC) estuarine nursery habitats, commercial landings have historically shown the Chesapeake Bay to produce the greatest blue crab harvests. To factor out the possibility that unequal fish...

Standardized artificial collectors were used to document trends in settlement of blue crab (Callinectes sapidus) megalopae in four Gulf of Mexico estuaries. Blue crab megalopal settlement was generally episodic within an estuary and asynchronous among coastwide sites. Daily settlement of megalopae at a given site and rankings of total numbers among...

Effects of tethering on predatory escape by juvenile blue crabs Callinectes sapidus Rathbun were examined. Trials were conducted in a large flume to simulate the natural sedimentary and hydrodynamic properties of open sand flats in low-energy estuarine environments. Behavioral interactions between juvenile (prey) and adult (predator) blue crabs wer...

Previous estimates of suspended food resources have not incorporated the hydrodynamics of species-specific food entrainment. To assess food resources available to the siphonate bivalve Mercenarja mercenarra, we developed a n in situ sampling protocol utilizing realistic incurrent siphon characteristics (e.g diameter, sampling height and pumping rat...

Results suggest that the natural range of flow rates (up to 27 cm s-1), in the absence of local food depletion, does not alone alter growth of this active suspension feeder. -from Authors

Marine allelochemicals generally are present in greater quantity and diversity in tropical than in temperate regions. Marine algal polyphenolics have been reported as an apparent exception to this biogeographic trend, with literature values for phenolic concentrations significantly higher in temperate than in tropical brown algae. In contrast, our...

Seagrasses may provide protection from predation while also influencing food supply for suspension-feeders by reducing water flow and changing rates of particle deposition. However, prior studies have shown both increased and decreased rates of bivalve growth in seagrass habitats relative to unvegetated substrata. We examined the hypothesis that va...

Estimates of juvenile blue crab Callinectes sapidus (Rathbun) abundance within high and low density Cuban shoal grass Halodule wrightii (Ascherson) grassbed microhabitats and adjacent unvegetated substratum were carried out by suction sampling at Ono Island, Alabama, during 1987–1988. Juvenile blue crabs were significantly more abundant in vegetate...

The present study investigated plant susceptibility, plant quality and food preferences in two small herbivorous mesograzers, the majid crabs Mithrax scultptus (Lamarck) and Mithrax coryphe (Herbst). Seven plants were chosen based on characteristics hypothesized to influence grazer preferences. These included relative abundance, hypothesized food “...

A short-term experiment was conducted to examine the relationships among the branching coral Porites porites, algal epibionts, and a facultative crab associate Mithrax sculptus in Belize, Central America. Initial field observations suggested that coral colonies supporting resident crabs generally had lower algal cover than colonies without crabs. T...

Hypotheses relating the form and function of bivalve hinge and marginal dentition were examined using experimental manipulations of shell sculpture. Experiments were designed to estimate relative resistance proffered by these two sculpture types in the absence of the adductor-ligamentum complex. Forces required to shear two species of bivalve mollu...

Cryptic meiofauna populated the imbricate, shell-sediment matrix of the tube-caps produced by the polychaete Diopatra cuprea (Bose) in Tampa Bay, Florida, USA. Nematodes, copepods (adults and nauplii), polychaetes (adults and juveniles) and amphipods (adults and juveniles) were the most abundant taxa found on tube-caps. Meiofaunal densities on tube...

Investigations were conducted in an intertidal sand-flat in Virginia to examine: 1.(1) the abundance and distribution of meiobenthos and small macrobenthos on tube-caps of the polychaete, Diopatra cuprea (Bosc) and2.(2) whether abundance of animals was related to tube-cap density or small-scale habitat complexity. Twenty-nine tube-caps were collect...

A series of experiments was conducted to evaluate the distribution and abundance patterns of two species of macrophyte-inhabiting caridean shrimps found in Apalachee Bay, Florida, USA. Experiments using Palaemonetes vulgaris and Palaemon floridanus included microhabitat association and behavioral interactions. Predator-prey relationships, as they a...

This publication is offered to members of the US commercial shellfish harvesting and aquaculture industry to inform them of work which has been published or presented in the National Shellfisheries Association's Journal of Shellfish Research or at the Annual Meeting either as a formal talk or as a poster. These items have been selected because they...

Intertidal oysters (Crassostrea virginica) are dispersed throughout most of the coast of the State of South Carolina (SC). These oysters serve as an important economic and environmental resource to the state. SC Department of Natural Resources (SCNR) has contracted with Photo Science, Inc., a provider of professional geospatial services, to determi...

Includes bibliographical references. Thesis (Ph. D.)--University of Maryland, College Park, 1987.

We used a field experiment to assess the individual and combined effects of removing top predators and enriching water column nutrients (nitrogen-N and phosphorus-P) on seagrass ecosystem structure and function. Experiments were conducted in turtlegrass (Thalassia testudinum) habitats in St. Joseph Bay, FL, an aquatic preserve in the northern Gulf...