Study: Native Oregon Oysters Uniquely Suited To Survive In Acidified Waters
June 15, 2016 | 1 min to read
Oregon's only native species of oyster, once deemed "functionally extinct" due to overharvesting, may hold the key to the future of the state's shellfish industry, researchers from Oregon State University said in a new study.
Researchers reported in the study the Olympia oyster is far more resistant to ocean acidification than its non-native cousin, the Pacifica oyster. The results came as a big surprise to George Waldbusser, a marine ecologist in Oregon State's College of Earth, Ocean, and Atmospheric Sciences and principal investigator on the project.
"We were sort of shocked the first time" they looked at the results, Waldbusser said. "We assumed someone did something wrong, but we repeated the study with a new group of animals and got the same results."
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