Date of Award

8-2025

Degree Type

Masters Thesis

Degree Name

Master of Science (MS)

School

Ocean Science and Engineering

Committee Chair

Eric N. Powell

Committee Chair School

Ocean Science and Engineering

Committee Member 2

Xiaodong Zhang

Committee Member 2 School

Ocean Science and Engineering

Committee Member 3

Chet Rakocinski

Committee Member 3 School

Ocean Science and Engineering

Abstract

Western Mississippi Sound is home to historical eastern oyster reefs that serve as an economically important yet decimated environmental habitat for coastal Mississippi (Pace et al. 2020, Pruett et al., 2024). Previous studies speculate upon the potential of food particle size as a food limitation for emerging larval cohorts resulting in limiting successful recruitment into the reefs (Klein et al. 2024a,b). Utilizing ambient salinity and temperatures outlined in Klein et al. (2024a), simulated food profiles with respect to food size organized into three sequential size classes: < 5, 5-20, and >20 µm were provided to simulated oyster larvae through the use of a biochemically-based Larval Performance Model. Findings from the following studies yield four main conclusions and recommendations: (1) further investigations into the relationship between food size composition and larval performance and monitoring of food quality within targeted food particle size categories is important for future oyster management including the evaluation of habitat suitability underpinning restoration goals; (2) the proportion of available smaller-sized food particles (< 5 µm) is crucial for early larval development; (3) larval growth is maximized when food is protein-rich; (4) successful metamorphosis is best achieved in food profiles of balanced nutrition, particularly a balanced ratio of protein to lipid, paired with a high abundance of food < 5 µm in size.

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