Invertebrate fouling community composition associated with Pacific oyster (Crassostrea gigas) suspended tray culture ...

• Main Author: Switzer, Soleil Elana
• Format: Article in Journal/Newspaper
• Language: English
• Published: University of British Columbia 2010
• Subjects: Pacific; Bray; Crassostrea gigas; Pacific oyster
• Online Access: https://dx.doi.org/10.14288/1.0069194; https://doi.library.ubc.ca/10.14288/1.0069194

Fouling organisms associated with suspended oyster aquaculture can significantly increase operational costs for growers and significantly decrease product marketability. Currently, there is little information available on the fouling communities present on deep-water, suspended tray Pacific oysters (Crassostrea gigas). In general, the industry practice in tray production of Pacific oyster is to use plastic trays, but a new polyvinyl-coated metal tray, which accommodates higher oyster densities, has recently become available. The objectives of this thesis were firstly, to assess whether differences exist in the extent of tray fouling between the 2 tray types using abundance, species richness, biomass, and dominance (univariate analyses) and the Bray-Curtis Dissimilarity Coefficient (multivariate, cluster analysis) as measures (Chapter 2) and secondly, to describe variation in the fouling organisms present on the oysters in the 2 tray types using the same univariate and multivariate analyses (Chapter 3). This ...