The initial aim of the project was to condition brood stock oysters for both control and ocean acidification treatment scenarios. Unfortunately, Clemson University’s Okeanos Research Laboratory’s pre-existing aquaria and holding facilities were not sufficient for this task and the effort resulted in failure. At this point, we realized that our first priority was to build the holding and larval culture facility. All subsequent efforts were directed to the building of a larval culturing facility.
Funding enabled the laboratory to obtain the necessary parts and components to build and an in-house marine invertebrate larval culture facility which will enable cellular biology based ocean acidification experiments on early-stage larval marine invertebrate animals including oysters. With the completion of the facility, the lab now has the capability to maintain oyster broodstock, grow algal cultures for feeding, perform larval spawning and growth and set up ocean acidification experiments that with have both control and two different CO2 treatment levels.
Research Results
Article: Oyster Shell Research Leads to Patent to Deter Biofouling