Subsamples of juvenile oysters will be removed during these three time points where the shell crushing force, size and weight will be measured. Spat will be fed phytoplankton daily and each cue treatment will have the juvenile oysters grown for 1, 2 and 3 months under these conditions. Following procedures already established in our lab, oyster spat will be held in closed-system nursery tanks with artificial seawater and exposed to either water from a crab holding tank, crab urine, a caged crab or a control of no cue depending on the experimental treatment. Briefly, oyster spat will be obtained from the Auburn University Shellfish Laboratory while blue crabs will be collected near Dauphin Island. In order to identify the optimal amount of time oysters should be exposed to predator cues as well as assess the long-term effects of cue exposure on oyster life-history characteristics, we will culture oysters at the Dauphin Island Sea Laboratory and Pointy Pines oyster farm. Here, we will conduct a series of laboratory and field experiments to determine whether a known predation avoidance response, growing thicker shells in the presence of predator cues, can be employed to improve oyster harvests in aquaculture facilities.
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