Globally we have lost the majority of shellfish reefs, with the concomitant loss of ecosystem services. Restoration provides opportunities to regain lost services and engage society in the wider ecosystem benefits of restoration. Previous research has demonstrated that the functional role of shellfish can be context dependent, and we therefore measured fluxes of nutrients and dissolved gases from four restored mussel reefs along a grain size gradient in New Zealand as a metric of success in ecosystem function. This globally novel research found that restored mussel reefs were successful in enhancing denitrification. Mussel reefs can therefore be important in reducing the risk of future eutrophication, but the importance of nutrient remineralisation varies in response to site conditions. These data show that mussel reef creation can quickly restore ecosystem function, but site selection to enhance specific services is important. This study provides evidence of a poorly realised ecosystem service provided by restored mussel beds that allows future restoration efforts to better target areas in order to have the largest impact on the removal of anthropogenic nitrogen.

在全球范围内，我们失去了大部分贝类珊瑚礁，同时也失去了生态系统服务。恢复提供了重新获得失去的服务的机会，并使社会参与到恢复带来的更广泛的生态系统效益中。先前的研究表明，贝类的功能作用可能取决于环境，因此我们测量了新西兰四个恢复的贻贝礁沿颗粒大小梯度的营养物质和溶解气体的通量，作为生态系统功能成功的衡量标准。这项全球新颖的研究发现，修复后的贻贝礁成功地增强了反硝化作用。因此，贻贝礁在降低未来富营养化的风险方面可能很重要，但营养物质再矿化的重要性因地点条件而异。这些数据表明，贻贝礁的形成可以快速恢复生态系统功能，但选址以增强特定服务很重要。这项研究提供了证据，表明恢复的贻贝床提供的生态系统服务实现不佳，使未来的恢复工作能够更好地针对区域，以便对人为氮的去除产生最大的影响。