Louisiana Project: Oyster Metapopulation Models

Louisiana Project

Oyster Metapopulation Models

January 2023 - December 2025

Personnel

Megan La Peyre, Co-Principal Investigator

Participating Agencies

Louisiana Department of Wildlife and Fisheries

A decline in oyster resources across Louisiana estuaries impacts both ecosystem services and a valuable commercial fishery, Restoration and management of oyster resources requires understanding and predicting connectivity between individual reefs across estuaries; but we lack tools to predict potential connectivity and reef development. Better understanding estuarine hydrodynamics, water quality, and their impacts on both oyster growth, physiology, reproduction, and larval movement is critical to helping restore oyster communities and ensuring resilient production in the future. This work will provide a tool to the state of Louisiana that will help identify potential sites for development of broodstock reefs that will support and seed adjacent reefs across the 9 Louisiana estuaries.

Research Publications

Research Publications	Publication Date
La Peyre MK, Sable S, Marshall DA, Irwin E, Hanson C. 2024. The use of conceptual ecological models to identify critical data and uncertainties to support numerical modeling:The northern Gulf of Mexico eastern oyster (Crassostrea virginica) example. Marine and Coastal Fisheries: Dynamics, Management, and Ecosystem Science. 204;16:e10297 https://doi.org/10.1002/mcf2.10297. \| Abstract	May 2024	Managing fisheries species of conservation, production and habitat value remains challenging. Increasing reliance on numerical simulation models to help inform management and restoration choices benefits from careful consideration of critical early steps in model development. These early steps include identification of priority management questions, consideration of the key physiological responses and vital rates and primary driving variables, acknowledgment of uncertainty, and focused investment in basic research to reduce uncertainty. Along the northern coast of the Gulf of Mexico, the eastern oyster, <i>Crassostrea virginica</i>, fulfills important ecological and economic roles. Using the eastern oyster as an example, we draw on several recent frameworks outlining best practices for model development and application for fisheries restoration, conservation and management to identify priority model questions, outline a conceptual ecological model (CEM) to guide numerical model development and use this framework to identify uncertainties and research needs. The CEM uses a nested design identifying explicit vital rates, processes, attributes and outcomes at the level of the individual oyster, the reef (population) and at a metapopulation level (a network of reef populations) in response to drivers and changing environmental factors. Most management actions related to reef restoration and harvest impact reef (population) attributes, but drivers (i.e., climate change, coastal and water resource engineering) impact environmental factors that alter vital rates and attributes of individual oysters, populations and metapopulations. Investment in studies targeting individual oyster and population (reef) level multi-stressor responses (filtration, respiration, growth, reproduction), and improving hydrodynamic and environmental models targeting drivers influencing metapopulation vital rates and attributes (i.e., connectivity, substrate persistence) would contribute to reducing critical uncertainties. Development of numerical models covering the entire oyster life cycle and connectivity of populations (reefs) using hydrodynamic models of current and predicted conditions to provide key abiotic and biotic factors influencing larval movement, recruitment, and on-reef oyster vital rates, would assist in balancing goals of conservation and production management of this foundational estuarine species.

Presentations

Presentations	Presentation Date
Dietl GP et al. 2024. Integrating information from the past into oyster restoration. International Conference on Shellfish Restoration, Jekyll Island GA, Sept2024.	September 2024
Zang Z, Stephens T, Lavaud R, Xue Z, Sable S, La Peyre M, Rose K, Carter B. 2025. Oyster metapopulation modeling for Calcasieu Lake. State of the Coast, May 20-22, 2025, New Orleans, LA.	May 2025
Zang J, Xue ZG, Sable SE, La Peyre MK, Stephens TA, Lindquist DC, Rose KA, Ou Y. 2024. A numerical study of eastern oyster (Crassostrea virginica) larvae growth and dispersal in Barataria Bay, Louisiana. Unifying Innovations in Forecasting Capabilities Workshop, Jackson MS.	July 2024
Stephens T, Zang J, Sable S, Rose K, Xue G., La Peyre M, Carter B. 2024. Simulating oyster larval transport to support ecosystem restoration. International Conference on Shellfish Restoration, Jekyll Island, GA.	September 2024
Stephens T, Zang J, Sable S, Lavaud R, Rose K, Xue G, La Peyre M, Carter B. 2025. Modeling larval transport to support oyster reef restoration. State of the Coast, May 20-22, 2025, New Orleans, LA.	May 2025
Stephens T, Diaz O, Messina F, Georgiou I, Lavaud R, Sable S, La Peyre M, Rose, K, Carter B. .2025. Oyster metapopulation modeling of North Pontchartrain Basin. State of the Coast, May 20-22, 2025, New Orleans, LA.	May 2025
Sable S, La Peyre M, Rose, K, Carter B. 2025. Session: Modeling and monitoring to inform sustainable oyster populations in Louisiana. State of the Coast, May 20-22, 2025, New Orleans, LA.	May 2025
Sable S, La Peyre M, Rose K, Lavaud R., Stevens T., Zang J., Xue G, Georgiou I, Diaz O, Wang H., Yurek S., Carter B. 2024. Oyster metapopulation modeling for Louisiana coastal basins. International conference on Shellfish Restoration, Jekyll Island, Georgia.	September 2024
Sable S, La Peyre M, Lavaud R, Stephens T, Rose K, Zang Z, Diaz O, Georgiou I, Xue Z, Carter B, Lindquist D, Yurek S, Wang H.2025. Oyster metapopulation model overview for restoration and adaptive management. State of the Coast, May 20-22, 2025, New Orleans, LA.	May 2025
Lavaud R, Zang Z, Stephens T, La Peyre M, Rose K, Sable S, Xue Z, Carter B. 2025. Oyster metapopulation modeling for Barataria Basin. State of the Coast, May 20-22, 2025, New Orleans, LA.	May 2025
Lavaud R, Sable S, Stephens T, La Peyre M, Rose, K, Zang Z, Xue Z, Diaz O, Georgiou I, Yurek S, Wang H, Carter B, Lindquist D. 2025. Using metapopulation modeling to support oyster restoration and aquaculture in Louisiana’s coastal basins. Aquaculture 2025, March 6-10, 2025, New Orleans, Louisiana, USA.	March 2025
La Peyre M, Carter B, Sable S, Lavaud R, Rose K, Stephens T, Lindquist D. 2025. Future oyster modeling and monitoring to support oyster restoration and adaptive management. State of the Coast, May 20-22, 2025, New Orleans, LA.	May 2025

Cooperative Fish and Wildlife Research Units Program: Louisiana Education, Research and Technical Assistance for Managing Our Natural Resources