Nature I 5
The Crown Pearls of New York City BY SINAIA KEITH LANG, BIOLOGY, 2022 DESIGN BY KYLA VIGDOR, DESIGN, 2021 PHOTO BY PIXABAY
While the ethics of human intervention in the Earth’s climate, also known as geoengineering, is being debated, several organizations in New York City are taking a geoengineeringnatural history hybrid approach to protect New York from storms that are worsening as a result of climate change. Since 2014, The Billion Oyster Project has worked to restore the oyster reefs that created natural breakwaters (barriers underwater that lessen the effect of storm surges) and kept the water in New York Harbor clean for centuries. When European settlers arrived in what is now New York City at the beginning of the seventeenth century, oyster beds composed 350 square miles of the lower Hudson River. Some estimates say, at one point, the New York Harbor contained half of the world’s oysters. The ubiquity of oysters in New York’s food—from fine-dining to street carts—made the bivalve mollusk practically synonymous with New York. This ubiquity had consequences, however, as the nitrogenfiltering oyster population plummeted from overharvesting. This, combined with industrialization, caused the waters of the harbor to become extremely polluted. Oysters are filter feeders, meaning they ingest and filter about 50 gallons of water per day and retain the nutrients they need. Nitrogen pollution, which promotes algal growth that reduces the oxygen levels of the water, is removed from the water by oysters via the ingestion of contaminated water, and the subsequent deposition of pollutants as a solid packet in the sand and storage of some of the nitrogen in their shells and tissues. Wild oysters have especially thick shells to protect themselves from predators. This means that fostering natural oyster growth, as opposed to relying on oysters hatched in labs, can increase the amount of nitrogen filtered out of the water. The Billion Oyster Project has been fostering natural oyster growth by placing artificial reefs, all of which have baby oysters that have been attached to recycled oyster shells, in the water. The empty shells come from the dozens of restaurants that have partnered with the organization and
the baby oysters are hatched by students at the New York Harbor School, a public high school on Governors Island that specializes in nautical activities. These reefs can be added on to by wild marine life, allowing the reefs to be rebuilt much faster than they would if the oyster population was to proceed naturally. The New York Harbor is not the only place where such initiatives are being taken. Such efforts began in Chesapeake Bay in the 1990s and are being seriously contemplated off of Cape Cod. Polluted waters are a prolific problem and using natural filters like oysters is one of many steps that can be taken to address the issue. The Billion Oyster Project has partnered with dozens of public schools around New York City to foster a passion for environmental protection in children so such efforts can continue. This project has received millions of dollars from the National Science Foundation and the Department of Housing and Urban Development’s Disaster Recovery Fund. Beyond cleaning the waters, the reefs used to act as breakwaters, helping to protect coastlines from rough waves caused by major storms like Superstorm Sandy. Breakwaters, which can be natural or artificial, exist on the seafloor, intercepting underwater currents to minimize the energy of waves on the surface. Recently, however, evidence has shown that artificial breakwaters can cause litter accumulation that threatens wildlife. As such, natural breakwaters, like the ones whose rebuilding efforts are being jump started by the Billion Oyster Project, can be more effective as a whole. While climate change is a huge issue that needs to be addressed, rebuilding reefs that used to canvas the seafloor is one step that can be taken improve water quality and mitigate the effects of progressively worsening storms.
A view of Governor’s Island, out of which the Billion Oyster Project is run, from Brooklyn Heights. PHOTO BY SINAIA KEITH LANG
Science of the Total Environment (2004). DOI: 10.1016/S0048-9697(03)00437-6 PLOS ONE (2011). DOI: 10.1371/journal.pone.0022396 Environmental Pollution (2016). DOI: 10.1016/j.envpol.2016.04.058
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kyscrapers shook, branches blew off trees, and transformer explosions left hundreds of thousands of people in darkness for days. This was no attack; this was Superstorm Sandy as it battered New York City in October 2012. Massive storm surges sent cars floating out of parking garages, sparked electrical fires, and even moved a roller coaster into the ocean in Seaside Heights, New Jersey. Recent projects seeking to mitigate these flood damages have found an unlikely biological ally: oysters.
