Virginia’s hard clam industry produces between $20 and $30 million-worth of clams annually. Iris Anderson, Mark Brush, and Mark Luckenbach of VIMS will expand upon their 2010 preliminary study of ecosystem responses to clam aquaculture and calibrate their model of how nutrient availability and transformations affect ecosystem health and clam aquaculture sustainability. The model will be made available online as a decision-support tool to aid resource managers in Virginia in predicting the sustainability of clam farms under changing environmental conditions and management practices.
Funded by the 2011 Virginia Sea Grant Coastal and Marine Science Funding RFP
Project detail: Iris Anderson (VIMS), Mark Luckenbach (VIMS), and Mark Brush (VIMS). Developing strategies to sustain hard clam aquaculture while minimizing impacts on water quality and nutrient dynamics.
