As oyster reefs continue to decline worldwide, interest has turned to restoration and aquaculture as ways to sustain the services derived from these ecologically and economically valuable habitats. While biogenic oyster reefs support a variety of ecological functions, it remains unclear whether aquaculture and its associated infrastructure can provide equivalent levels of functioning. Here, we compare consumption rates by fish and invertebrate predators, a key indicator of energy transfer between trophic levels, between reef and aquaculture habitats for the Eastern oyster (Crassostrea virginica) in the Western Atlantic. We deployed a standardized dried squid prey item (‘Squidpops’) in three different structured settings: biogenic oyster reefs, on-bottom aquaculture, and off-bottom aquaculture. For each habitat treatment, we also implemented an adjacent control in nearby bare (unstructured) sediment. These assays were repeated across three seasons at twelve locations spanning 900 km of coastline. We found that consumption rates were contingent on the presence and type of structure: they were highest near off-bottom floating bags, and the difference between structured habitats and unstructured controls was also greatest for this treatment. Moreover, at large temporal and spatial scales, consumption rates increased with increasing temperature, and independently declined with increasing latitude. Our study revealed that certain types of aquaculture support comparable or greater consumption rates than natural reefs, suggesting an important role for this novel structured habitat in maintaining coastal food webs.

随着全世界范围内牡蛎礁的持续减少，人们对恢复和水产养殖的兴趣已成为维持来自这些具有生态和经济价值的生境的服务的方式。尽管生物牡蛎礁支持多种生态功能，但尚不清楚水产养殖及其相关基础设施能否提供同等水平的功能。在这里，我们比较了鱼类和无脊椎动物掠食者的消费率，这是营养水平之间，东部牡蛎（Crassostrea virginica）在营养水平之间，礁石和水产养殖栖息地之间转移的关键指标）在西大西洋。我们在三种不同的结构化环境中部署了标准化的鱿鱼干猎物（'Squidpops'）：生物牡蛎礁，底上养殖和底下养殖。对于每种栖息地处理，我们还对附近的裸露（非结构化）沉积物实施了相邻控制。在三个季节中，在跨越900公里海岸线的十二个位置重复进行了这些测定。我们发现，消费率取决于结构的存在和类型：在离底部浮袋近的地方，消费率最高，对于这种处理，结构化栖息地和非结构化对照之间的差异也最大。此外，在较大的时空尺度上，消耗率随温度升高而增加，而随纬度增加而独立下降。