About the Project
Restoring shellfish populations can help control eutrophication and achieve mandated water quality targets; however, this approach requires that ecosystem managers have a better understanding of how nitrogen moves through their estuary and the capacities of shellfish communities to remove nitrogen (N).
By leveraging a well-established collaborative group at GTM Reserve and engaging additional users, this project helped create a better understanding of shellfish distributions, health, filtration capacity in and around the Guana River Estuary. The project not only generated valuable water quality and shellfish data but it also established a path for increased research and monitoring by fostering connectedness between people and data.
About the Resource
A benthic chamber is a device that can be used to study sediment-water interactions. Guana Tolomato Matanzas NERR uses benthic chambers to measure sediment denitrification in the presence of oysters subtidal and intertidal regions. However, low functionality and high costs can limit the applications of benthic chambers. This project helped advance the design and operations of the benthic chamber devices used by GTM NERR. The set of resources below describe the improved design, assembly, and use of the improved benthic chambers.