Morphometrics and nutrient concentration of eastern oysters (Crassostrea virginica) sampled from Chesapeake Bay, USA

Acknowledgements Ward Slacum and Olivia Caretti from the Oyster Recovery Partnership for providing the support and resources to compile the initial oyster BMP dataset and maintenance. 

Background Information

The Chesapeake Bay Program (CBP) approved the use of eastern oyster (Crassostrea virginica) aquaculture as a nitrogen and phosphorus reduction best management practice in December 2016. The CBP decision was based on the recommendations of the Oyster Best Management Practice Expert Panel. The approved BMP report, “Panel Recommendations on the Oyster BMP Nutrient and Suspended Sediment Reduction Effectiveness Determination Decision Framework and Nitrogen and Phosphorus Assimilation in Oyster Tissue Reduction Effectiveness for Oyster Aquaculture Practices” is available here: https://d18lev1ok5leia.cloudfront.net/chesapeakebay/documents/Oyster_BMP_1st_Report_Final_Approved_2016-12-19.pdf

And a summary fact sheet about the report and the panel’s findings is available here: https://oysterrecovery.org/wp-content/uploads/June_2018-FINAL-bmp-fact-sheet-1.pdf

The panel’s recommendations were based on an analysis of two datasets: 1) available literature for eastern oyster tissue nitrogen and phosphorus concentrations (%) across the Northeast region of the United States, and 2) available literature for the relationship between shell height (mm) vs. tissue dry weight (g) for eastern oysters sampled within Chesapeake Bay, USA. The nitrogen and phosphorus concentration datasets were relatively small, and the data were published in the report. The dataset describing the relationship between oyster shell height vs. tissue dry weight was much larger (n = 6,816). The report contains summary statistics and visual representations of the data, but the data themselves were not publicly released.

A second report was released by the Oyster Best Management Practice Expert Panel in 2023, with additional analysis of an expanded dataset for the relationship between oyster shell height vs. tissue dry weight (n = 10,786) and a new dataset for the relationship between oyster shell height vs. shell dry weight to support the development of an oyster restoration BMP. The second BMP report, “Nitrogen and Phosphorus Reduction Associated with Harvest of Hatchery-Produced Oysters and Reef Restoration: Assimilation and Enhanced Denitrification” is available here:

https://d18lev1ok5leia.cloudfront.net/chesapeakebay/documents/Oyster-BMP-Second-Report_Approved_with_Minutes.pdf

The second report contains summary statistics and visual representations of the data, but the data themselves were not publicly released.

Data Description

This repository contains 77% of the data (n = 8,395) used by the Chesapeake Bay Program’s Oyster Best Management Practice Expert Panel to develop its recommendations for both the 2016 first report and the 2023 second report. Some of the data in this repository were previously published in the peer-reviewed literature as summary statistics, but the raw data were not archived. The remaining data are either not currently available or are published in the gray literature. Two datasets that were used in the Expert Panel analysis are not included in this repository, as the data are unpublished with the data owners intending to publish these data in the future.

The repository is organized with individual oyster samples as rows and a combination of numerical and categorical information as columns. Each row/sample in the repository contains data on oyster shell height (mm) and oyster dry weight (g), data source, and sample collection location information. Location information is presented across columns with different levels of spatial resolution. This repository also contains additional information provided by scientists when available, such as nitrogen, carbon, or phosphorus concentration, details about the oyster source and growth conditions, and sampling time (e.g., season/date/year).