ABSTRACT: Wild shellfish reefs have been decimated in many parts of the world over the last century, diminishing their vital ecological roles as habitat generators and the ecosystem services they provide, such as water filtration. Over this same timescale, shellfish aquaculture has rapidly expanded to become an impressive global industry with an annual worldwide production worth US$35.4 billion in 2020. Both wild reefs and aquaculture operations typically rely on abundant shellfish settlement levels to maintain their respective populations. At the same time, shellfish aquaculture has the potential to influence settlement, as the addition of cultured shellfish to an ecosystem increases the quantity of reproductive adults and may therefore increase settlement rates. Alternatively, shellfish aquaculture may lead to an overall reduction in settlement in an ecosystem, either directly through cannibalistic consumption of larvae or indirectly by straining carrying capacity. We assessed the role of marine shellfish aquaculture on settlement by comparing changes in the abundance of settling green-lipped mussels Perna canaliculus with the expansion of mussel farms at the north end of New Zealand’s South Island over a 47 yr timespan. Overall, mussel settlement did not increase over this period despite an estimated 16000-fold increase in the number of mussels living in the region as mussel aquaculture proliferated. The disconnect between the extent of mussel settlement and mussel aquaculture was consistent across 3 separate areas within the region, suggesting that aquaculture mussels may be unable to produce larvae capable of settlement and emphasizing the importance of wild mussel populations for ecosystem resilience.

中文翻译：

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扩大贝类水产养殖对沉降率没有影响

摘要：上个世纪，野生贝类珊瑚礁在世界许多地方遭到破坏，削弱了它们作为栖息地产生者的重要生态作用以及它们提供的生态系统服务，例如水过滤。在同一时间范围内，贝类水产养殖业迅速发展成为一个令人印象深刻的全球产业，到 2020 年，全球年产量将达到 354 亿美元。野生珊瑚礁和水产养殖业务通常依赖丰富的贝类沉降水平来维持其各自的种群。同时，贝类水产养殖有可能影响定居，因为将养殖的贝类添加到生态系统中会增加繁殖成虫的数量，因此可能会提高定居率。或者，贝类水产养殖可能会导致生态系统中定居的整体减少，直接通过自相残杀的幼虫消耗或间接通过使承载能力紧张。我们通过比较沉降绿唇贻贝丰度的变化来评估海洋贝类水产养殖对沉降的作用Perna canaliculus与新西兰南岛北端的贻贝养殖场在 47 年的时间跨度内进行了扩建。总体而言，尽管随着贻贝水产养殖的激增，该地区生活的贻贝数量估计增加了 16000 倍，但贻贝的定居在此期间并未增加。贻贝定居范围与贻贝水产养殖之间的脱节在该地区的 3 个不同区域是一致的，这表明水产贻贝可能无法生产能够定居的幼虫，并强调野生贻贝种群对生态系统恢复力的重要性。