Morphometrics and nutrient concentration of farmed eastern oysters (Crassostrea virginica) from the US Northeast Region

Acknowledgements This work was supported by the NOAA Fisheries Northeast Fisheries Science Center and the NOAA Fisheries Office of Aquaculture. Thanks to Marta Gomez-Chiarri, PG Harris, Mark Luckenbach, and Christine Thompson for sharing data, although these data were not included in the final repository. Background Information The removal of excess nitrogen from eutrophic environments is an ecosystem service provided by shellfish aquaculture that is well described in the literature (Lindahl et al., 2005; Rose et al., 2014; Petersen et al., 2014; Clements and Comeau, 2019). Nitrogen removal associated with shellfish farms can occur via three mechanisms: the assimilation of nitrogen into tissue and shell, which is removed from the waterbody when animals are harvested; the enhancement of sediment denitrification through biodeposit production on farms; and the long-term burial of biodeposits. A robust calculation of the nitrogen removed at shellfish harvest has been previously published using relatively simple metrics: the nitrogen concentration of tissue/shell, the number and mean size of animals harvested, and a conversion of animal size to tissue and shell dry weight (Reichert-Nguyen et al., 2016; Clements and Comeau, 2019). The quantity of nitrogen removed at shellfish harvest has been previously predicted with high confidence, which has led to the integration of oyster and clam aquaculture into nutrient management programs at the local and estuary scale in the United States (Town of Mashpee, 2015; Reichert-Nguyen et al., 2016; Reitsma et al., 2017). The data in this repository were compiled with the intention of expanding the geographic scope of calculation of nitrogen removal associated with harvested eastern oysters (Crassostrea virginica), and to evaluate variation in this ecosystem service across common cultivation practices and ploidy. Data were obtained from sampling locations across the US from the state of North Carolina north to the state of Maine. Data are included for both diploid and triploid oysters, and for three common styles of cultivation: oysters grown on bottom without the use of aquaculture gear, oysters grown in bottom cages, and oysters grown in floating gear at the sea surface. Data curation was undertaken to obtain a dataset that most closely reflects on-farm conditions as possible. The highest priority was to find data collected from working oyster farms, and a second priority was to identify data collected by scientists who empl