By Katharine Sucher, Science Writing Intern
This June, Abby Lunstrum began a 24-month graduate research fellowship with Virginia Sea Grant (VASG). Over the next two years, Abby will investigate how off-bottom oyster aquaculture, a method of oyster farming, affects nutrient cycling in coastal sediments. A major focus of Abby’s work will consider whether oyster aquaculture stimulates the loss of reactive nitrogen in nearby sediments. This research could have big implications for the sustainable management of local ecosystems.
When saturated with excess nutrients, a body of water can experience increased algal productivity. This algal growth and subsequent decay reduces the amount of oxygen in the water, killing other living organisms and threatening the balance of a healthy ecosystem. This harmful process is known as eutrophication.
Bivalves—a type of hinged mollusk that filter plankton from the water—may help mitigate eutrophication. Bivalves reduce levels of reactive nitrogen in the water by assimilating nutrients and also by potentially stimulating nitrogen loss in nearby sediment. For these reasons, bivalve aquaculture is being considered as a tool to reduce eutrophication on Virginia’s coasts. Abby will specifically be studying the impact of the bivalve Crassostrea virginica, a common oyster in Virginia waters, at an oyster bed in the Chesapeake Bay.
Through her fellowship with VASG, Abby hopes to further develop her technical and analytical research skills. She also hopes her findings will inform both domestic and international aquaculture policies.
“The long-term goal of this project is to help formulate coastal management policies that both encourage sustainable expansion of the bivalve aquaculture industry and potentially mitigate coastal nutrient enrichment,” Abby said.
Abby graduated from the University of Washington with a bachelor’s degree in ecology, evolution, and conservation biology in 2006. She is currently pursuing a master’s in environmental sciences from the University of Virginia. Abby was previously a Fulbright fellow at Xiamen University in China, and also received funding from a Graduate Conservation Fellowship of the National Fish and Wildlife Federation.
