Thompson Victor D, Rick Torben, Garland Carey J, Thomas David Hurst, Smith Karen Y, Bergh Sarah, Sanger Matt, Tucker Bryan, Lulewicz Isabelle, Semon Anna M, Schalles John, Hladik Christine, Alexander Clark, Ritchison Brandon T
University of Georgia, Department of Anthropology, 250A Baldwin Hall, Athens, GA 30602, USA.
Department of Anthropology, National Museum of Natural History, Smithsonian Institution, Washington, DC 20013, USA.
Sci Adv. 2020 Jul 10;6(28):eaba9652. doi: 10.1126/sciadv.aba9652. eCollection 2020 Jul.
The eastern oyster () is an important proxy for examining historical trajectories of coastal ecosystems. Measurement of ~40,000 oyster shells from archaeological sites along the Atlantic Coast of the United States provides a long-term record of oyster abundance and size. The data demonstrate increases in oyster size across time and a nonrandom pattern in their distributions across sites. We attribute this variation to processes related to Native American fishing rights and environmental variability. Mean oyster length is correlated with total oyster bed length within foraging radii (5 and 10 km) as mapped in 1889 and 1890. These data demonstrate the stability of oyster reefs despite different population densities and environmental shifts and have implications for oyster reef restoration in an age of global climate change.
东部牡蛎（）是研究沿海生态系统历史轨迹的重要代表。对美国大西洋沿岸考古遗址中约40000个牡蛎壳的测量提供了牡蛎丰度和大小的长期记录。数据表明，随着时间的推移，牡蛎大小有所增加，且其在各遗址的分布呈现非随机模式。我们将这种变化归因于与美洲原住民捕鱼权和环境变异性相关的过程。平均牡蛎长度与1889年和1890年绘制的觅食半径（5公里和10公里）内的总牡蛎床长度相关。这些数据表明，尽管种群密度和环境发生了变化，牡蛎礁仍具有稳定性，这对全球气候变化时代的牡蛎礁恢复具有启示意义。
