Climate Change Impacts on Farmed and Wild Oysters (2025-2026)

Background

Oysters contribute many ecosystem services to coastal communities, support commercial and recreational fisheries and hold considerable economic and cultural value in North Carolina. As a foundation species, they form reefs that contribute to shoreline stabilization, improve water quality, sequester carbon and create habitat for a large diversity of species.

Oyster reefs and farms are located within coastal areas that are subject to considerable temporal and spatial variation in environmental conditions (e.g., temperature, pH, salinity, oxygen, turbidity, nutrient concentrations). Climate change contributes to this variation, and environmental stressors associated with climate change can interact with other stressors (e.g., predation, pathogens) to negatively impact oyster growth and reproduction. In some cases, widespread mortality events occur, but the precise cause(s) of these events remain poorly understood.

North Carolina oyster farmers are already facing major losses from recurring mortalities that primarily occur during the late spring and summer months. Both environmental history and genetic diversity of the oysters can dictate resilience to stress. Disentangling which environmental stressor(s) and which genetic lines dictate oyster performance will provide valuable information that will inform the work of shellfish growers, stakeholders and environmental restoration practitioners.

Project Description

Building on the work of a previous team, team members will leverage the Duke Aquafarm – Duke’s oyster farm located at the Marine Lab in Beaufort, North Carolina – to monitor and evaluate multiple environmental parameters that contribute to oyster mortality, particularly during the summer when mortality rates tend to be at their highest.

Team members will deploy and maintain a series of oceanographic sensors to continuously monitor environmental conditions including water temperature, salinity, pH, dissolved oxygen and depth. Continuous data collection via sensor deployments will be supplemented by weekly or bi-weekly (dependent on weather) measurements recorded at the Aquafarm and other oyster farms using hand-held meter instruments. In 2025-2026 team members will expand data collection to new field sites and may also build an additional oyster hatchery.

Team members will also monitor the performance and growth of the oysters at the Aquafarm by performing weekly or biweekly assessments of size (growth) and mortality. The data will be used to assess changing environmental conditions and their relationship to oyster performance.

Team members will communicate with regional oyster farmers, sharing information via a publicly available web resource. Farmer observations and opinions will guide or generate new areas of study within the project.

Anticipated Outputs

Peer-reviewed publications; conference presentations; server resources to store/share environmental data; data for grant applications

Student Opportunities

Ideally, this project team will include 2 graduate students and 6 undergraduate students with interests in marine science and conservation, environmental sciences and policy, earth and climate sciences, biology and/or statistical sciences. Students curious about climate change, food security, science communication and working in local coastal communities will be a particularly good fit for the project. Prospective graduate applicants should be interested in building mentorship and project management skills, and a Ph.D. student will be selected to serve as project manager.

Team leaders in Durham and Beaufort will facilitate collaboration across campuses and provide in-person support to students regardless of their location. All team members will participate in journal clubs and presentations, and will have the chance to gain experience in data collection, fieldwork, leadership, analysis and dissemination of scientific results, academic writing and science communication. Students will develop their communication skills by interacting with regional oyster farmers.

Subteams mentored by graduate student leaders and a project manager will focus on complementary aspects of the project (e.g., measurements at the Aquafarm, sensor deployment/maintenance, data analysis, results dissemination). Students will be invited to join more than one subteam so that there are overlaps in participation across various tasks and goals. Team members will also be guided as they develop independent research questions within the project's framework.

The full team (including both Durham and Marine Lab participants) will meet in person at least once per semester and on-campus students may have the opportunity for travel to the Marine Lab. Students may also have the opportunity for travel to a regional conference.

In an optional summer component, two students will travel to the Duke Marine Lab to lead fieldwork. Summer team members must be willing to commit 40 hours per week for 10 weeks.

Timing

Summer 2025 – Spring 2026

• Summer 2025 (optional): Deploy and maintain sensors at the Aquafarm; monitor oyster performance; collect tissue samples, organize data and metadata and conduct molecular lab work at Duke Marine Lab; conduct field-based experiments at the farms or in seawater facilities at Duke Marine Lab
• Fall 2025: Continue field experiment; analyze and visualize environmental and oyster data; continue ongoing lab work
• Spring 2026: Complete remaining lab work; upload data and findings to web resource; present findings at a conference; write, review and submit manuscript

Crediting

Academic credit available for fall and spring semesters; summer funding available

See earlier related team Climate Change Impacts on Farmed and Wild Oysters (2024-2025).

 

_{Image: Duke Aquafarm}