2020-07-07 P&E Agenda - Item 3 - Attachment 1 - TNC Project Management Plan

Ecological target and reference ecosystem

The ecological goals and objectives underlying the Project’s ecological target have been developed in accordance
with best practice restoration monitoring guidelines16 17 18 and current research that defines ecological attributes
to guide the restoration of rock oyster (S. glomerata) dominated ecosystems19 i.e. an ecological reference model.

Ultimately, the ecological target of this phase of the project is to restore a biogenic shellfish ecosystems in multiple
locations in the Noosa River estuary. These biogenic habitats will be dominated by native oysters (S. glomerata)
and colonised by a diverse assemblage of associated organisms such as other shellfish, bryozoans, crustaceans,
barnacles and calcareous polychaetes and fish.

Through restoration efforts, the current site will shift from an existing bare sandy and/or rubble bottom, with low
species diversity (
Figure 5a) to mixed habitats with high diversity (
Figure 5b, c). The conceptual diagram below shows the expected stages of ecosystem transition and restoration:
from substrate deployment, partly seeded with juvenile oysters, to a biodiverse, self-sustaining living shellfish
ecosystem (
Figure 6).




Figure 5: Sandy bottom substrate (a) compared to natural oyster ecosystem in George’s Bay Tasmania displaying
different vertical profiles and structure (b,c). © C Gillies, The Nature Conservancy.
                                                                                                                               c




Figure 6: Stages of development to create a living shellfish ecosystem © The Nature Conservancy




16 The Nature Conservancy et al, Oyster Habitat Restoration Monitoring and Assessment Handbook
17 Mcdonald et al (2016). National standards for the practice of ecological restoration in Australia, Restoration

Ecology, Vol. 24, No. S1, pp. S4–S32.
18 Conservation Measures Partnership (2013) Open Standards for the Practice of Conservation Version 3.0, accessed

online via http://cmp-openstandards.org/wp-content/uploads/2014/03/CMP-OS-V3-0-Final.pdf
19 McLeod, I. M., Boström-Einarsson, L., Creighton, C., D’Anastasi, B., Diggles, B., Dwyer, P. G., ... & McOrrie, S. (2019).

Habitat value of Sydney rock oyster (Saccostrea glomerata) reefs on soft sediments. Marine and Freshwater
Research.


62 | Bring Back the Fish MER plan 2020 – 2022