Kinsey Tedford

Kinsey’s dissertation, “Restoring and sustaining oysters: spatial drivers of oyster populations,” focuses on understanding the relative importance of environmental conditions and predator communities in structuring oyster populations, which can be used to explain the outcomes of existing restoration efforts and inform future management decisions. Specifically, in Virginia, this new knowledge will indicate the optimal geographic locations and local-scale conditions that will maximize restoration success. Restoring and sustaining oyster reefs are crucial to maintaining the long-term stability of oyster production, in addition to providing habitat for other economically valuable fisheries species. The sustainment of these reefs will also continue to provide shoreline stabilization to improve preparation and adaptation to future scenarios of change in coastal systems.