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CAN BIVALVES BE USEFUL INDICATORS OF ECOSYSTEM CONDITION?
Citation:
Fisher, W S. CAN BIVALVES BE USEFUL INDICATORS OF ECOSYSTEM CONDITION? Presented at 93rd Annual Meeting of the National Shellfisheries Association, Orlando, FL, 21-25 January 2001.
Description:
Numerous management decisions are made to sustain multiple, and often competing, products and services from coastal ecosystems. Scientific support for these decisions emanate from environmental indicators or selected measurements used in a monitoring program. Indicators are surrogates, estimates or representations of conditions that are otherwise too numerous or complex to measure. One of the major challenges for indicator development is to identify those measurable environmental characteristics that are essential to the integrity of valued resources.
Integrity and sustainability of ecosystem condition are important societal values that can be broadly interpreted because of the multiple products and services derived. Even scientific descriptions of ecosystem condition vary, but generally include vigor (function, activity, metabolism, primary production), organization (biodiversity, trophic structure, degree of specialization) and resilience (ability to resist or recuperate from stress). Indicators of ecosystem condition must reflect these qualities. Measurements on bivalves are reasonable indicator candidates because bivalves contribute significantly in these critical ecological areas. Water filtration for feeding is requisite for metabolic activity, and also generates nutrient cycling that stimulates primary production (vigor). Accumulation (and possible deactivation) of toxins, contaminants and pathogens without adverse effects is a by-product of water filtration and may contribute to ecosystem resilience. Bivalve shell and reef structure provide habitat for both micro- and macro-fauna and flora, drawing foragers and predators into a reef-based community (organization). Also, organization is served when bivalve reef structures alter hydrology to create and/or protect habitat diversity.
It follows that the critical ecological aspects of bivalves are water filtration capacity and reef structure, characteristics that should be reflected if measurements on bivalves