Historical dataset details the distribution, extent and form of lost Ostrea edulis reef ecosystems.

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Authors

Ruth H. Thurstan , Hannah McCormick, Joanne Preston, Elizabeth C Ashton, Floris P Bennema, Ana Bratoš Cetinić, Janet H Brown, Tom C Cameron, Fiz da Costa, David Donnan, Christine Ewers, Tomaso Fortibuoni, Eve Galimany, Otello Giovanardi, Romain Grancher, Daniele Grech, Maria Hayden-Hughes, Luke Helmer, K Thomas Jensen, José A Juanes, Janie Latchford, Alec BM Moore, Dimitrios K Moutopoulos, Pernille Nielsen, Henning von Nordheim, Bárbara Ondiviela, Corina Peter, Bernadette Pogoda, Bo Poulsen, Stéphane Pouvreau, Cordula Scherer, Aad Smaal, David Smyth, Åsa Strand, John A Theodorou, Philine SE zu Ermgassen

Abstract

Ocean ecosystems have been subjected to anthropogenic influences for centuries, but the scale of past ecosystem changes is often unknown. For centuries, the European flat oyster (Ostrea edulis), an ecosystem engineer providing biogenic reef habitats, was a culturally and economically significant source of food and trade. These reef habitats are now functionally extinct, and almost no memory of where this ecosystem once existed, at what scales, or its past form and functioning, remains. The described datasets present qualitative and quantitative extracts from written records published between 1524 and 2022, which show: (1) locations of past oyster fisheries and/or oyster reef habitat across its biogeographical range, with associated levels of confidence; (2) extent of past oyster reef habitats, and; (3) species associated with these habitats. These datasets will be of use to inform accelerating restoration activities, to establish reference models for anchoring adaptive management of restoration action, and in contributing to global efforts to recover records on the hidden history of anthropogenic-driven ocean ecosystem degradation.

DOI

https://doi.org/10.32942/X28C99

Subjects

Aquaculture and Fisheries Life Sciences, Biodiversity, Marine Biology, Terrestrial and Aquatic Ecology

Keywords

Ostrea edulis, historical ecology, environmental history, biogenic habitat

Dates

Published: 2023-12-07 14:12

License

CC BY Attribution 4.0 International

Additional Metadata

Language:
English

Conflict of interest statement:
None

Data and Code Availability Statement:
Data is available in figshare, which will be made publicly available upon publication