Data from: Initiating and upscaling mussel reef establishment with life cycle informed restoration: successes and future challenges

The manuscript that has been based on these data is published in Ecological Engineering.

These datafiles are part of a study in which we aimed to test whether the restoration approach life cycle informed restoration, which focusses on the amelioration of multiple bottlenecks throughout an organisms life cycle, can be scaled to ecosystem-relevant scales. To test this, we conducted a large-scale restoration experiment using blue mussel reefs as a model system. In our two-year experiment, we used biodegradable structures to temporarily facilitate mussel reef formation by providing early-life settlement substrates, and subsequently, reduce post-settlement predation on an intertidal flat in the Wadden Sea, the Netherlands.

The structures were placed in 10x20m plots, mimicking bands found in natural mussel beds, spread out across 650m. As controls, unmanipulated bare plots were used. Our results show that the structures enhance mussel biomass and that mussels were absent in bare plots. However, biomass varied within plots; in intact structures it was 60 times higher than in those that became buried. Next to burial, 18-46% of the structures were lost due to technical failure, especially during winters at this exposed site.

The datasets contain data obtained from this manipulative field experiment on mussel biomass and structure condition collected near Griend in the Netherlands.