Marine shellfish like oysters carry out a vital role in marine ecosystems however the UK's native oyster species has suffered a drastic decline in recent years.
Scientists from the University of Aberdeen and NativeAqua, a native oyster farm, have been awarded £14,300 to investigate how to improve the resilience of the native oyster, in a bid to boost the numbers of the species.
Researchers will use novel data-driven genetic approaches to inform a new breeding programme. By analysing the genetic fingerprint of each species in a breeding programme they can then optimise which oysters to breed together for the strongest offspring. This approach is common in all agriculture farmed species, but has so far not been used to help the native oyster.
