Name: Allyson Kido

Title: “Phytoplankton-Removal Ecosystem Services of a Native Mussel in an Urban Estuary”

Date: Thursday April 4, 2024
Time: 9:00a.m.

Location: IMET Multipurpose Room

Zoom Access: email: mees@umd.edu

Abstract:

Baltimore Harbor, like many urban estuaries, is stressed by nutrients in stormwater runoff. Excess nutrients can lead to algae blooms, which negatively impact the environment by causing hypoxic and anoxic zones. Efforts to reduce nutrients focus on point sources, but native bivalves provide an unexploited opportunity. Most work studying ecosystem services of bivalves has been on commercially important species like oysters, mussels, and clams. In the Chesapeake Bay, there is a system for oyster-based nutrient credits in which the nitrogen content in harvested oysters is “sold” to polluters that need to mitigate nutrient input into the bay. However, oysters do not grow well in urban estuaries and have no natural populations. Therefore, studying other native bivalve species to Baltimore Harbor may provide an alternative solution. The dark false mussel, Mytilopsis leucophaeata, is a native bivalve that grows abundantly in Baltimore Harbor. Its potential to filter phytoplankton and serve as a nitrogen sink have yet to be determined. This thesis examines the ability of M. leucophaeata to reduce algae, and thus the nutrients within. First, I tested if M. leucophaeata can reduce cultured algae species. I then evaluated the ability of M. leucophaeata to reduce algae levels under different temperature and salinity conditions relevant to Baltimore Harbor. Finally, I established that M. leucophaeata can reduce wild algae blooms. Overall, these results show that M. leucophaeata can provide similar ecosystem services to that of oysters and show promise for nature-based nutrient reduction.