Dataset: Hatchery-reared spat data from laboratory experiments performed to investigate the effect of salinity on juvenile oyster growth in 2019 and 2020

This methodology describes this hatchery spat dataset as well as the related wild spat dataset:

This study examined how salinity and salinity history influence oyster spat growth . This was tested using two experiments, one using wild spat placed into different salinity treatments in the laboratory (referred to as Wild Spat Experiment, see Related Datasets section for methods) and another using hatchery raised spat which grew from larvae set in different salinities then transferred into new salinities after three weeks postset (referred to as Hatchery Spat Experiment, results reported in this dataset). Wild spat provided observations linked to pre-experiment conditions in the wild (larval dispersal, settlement, and early postset growth) to provide results of greater potential relevance to understanding effects of the natural estuarine gradient. The datasets provide the size of the oyster spat at the time they were placed into the final salinity treatments and at the end of the experiment.

See methodology in methods and results published in Manuel et al., 2023

Though laboratory-based, the geospatial range for Delaware Bay is used for this dataset due to use of some Delaware Bay oysters used to produce the animals, and filtered sea water from Delaware Bay was used.

Instruments

Equipment for these experiments included tanks, algal paste, microscopes, micrometers and calipers.