Co-benefits of kelp and mussels
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THERE is some great research happening in the U.S. and abroad looking at co-culture of kelp and mussels. Here are a couple of projects that have been in the news. Post a Reply to add a project to the list!
Mussels are good for kelp! Matthew Hargrave, PhD University of Gothenberg (Sweden), discovered during his dissertation research that mussels reduce biofouling on co-cultured kelp, help it grow larger (and take up more carbon and nitrogen), and provide nutrients that make it more resilient to climate change. Specifically, "mussels filter out the larvae from other organisms that would otherwise have colonized the kelp", all this filtration leads to clearer water and more sunlight for the photosynthetic algae, and mussels produce nutrients that kelps can utilize to grow. These extra nutrients can help protect a kelp crop from stressors like low salinity, a major impact of climate change. (See Matthew's dissertation abstract here: https://gupea.ub.gu.se/handle/...)
Ocean acidification harms shellfish. Kelps may help! Kelp soaks up carbon from the water and turns it into, well, kelp. Generally, more kelp = less carbon in the water = higher pH = less acidic = a halo of better growing conditions for shellfish and the marine environment near where the kelp grows. Bangs Island Mussels has been working with University of New England, Atlantic Sea Farms, Bigelow Laboratories for Ocean Sciences, and the Island Institute for the past few years to assess whether the kelp "halo" (or "halo effect") is strong enough to improve the mussel crop on their Casco Bay, Maine farm. According to the article linked above, Dr. Nicole Price at Bigelow Labs is expanding the study to Alaska and Norway to see whether the results can be reproduced on other farms. Separately, Stony Brook University professor Dr. Christopher Gobler and @michael_doall are testing the kelp halo hypothesis in southern New England, on GreenWave's kelp-mussel-oyster farm in the Thimble Islands, Connecticut.
