Individual and community-level responses of crustaceans and fish to restoration of marine biogenic habitat

Restoration of biogenic habitat, such as seagrass and oyster reef are increasingly being used to combat the loss and degradation of habitat and potentially increase fishery yields. Here, I describe two studies designed to quantify the effects of restoration of biogenic habitat at both the community and individual level. The first study measured the effect of the addition of oyster reef in salt marsh tidal creeks on transient demersal fish and crustaceans using a BACI design. It found at best, a weak effect of the addition of oyster reef. These findings could have resulted from the redundancy of biogenic habitat. The second study determined the individual level response to biogenic structure using a tri-trophic level experiment. The results indicated that sea grass had no effect on the behavior of either red drum or blue crab, but that the presence of red drum did cascade and significantly reduced the predation of clams by blue crab.