Ten things we don't know about oysters

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For small, harmless creatures like oysters, there is no doubt that they have a lot of knowledge in them. They were mixed into soups and stews as peasant food, and they were also suitable for the king, king Louis XIV of France, a big fan of raw oysters. Some oysters produce precious pearls, while others are considered treasures because of their distinctive shells. Recently, oysters near the downtown area have attracted attention because of their ability to purify water.

In fact, you might be amazed at what you don't know about oysters — we still have a lot to learn.

1. Yes, oysters have hearing. In a recently released study, scientists exposed oysters to low-frequency sounds, such as cargo ships, man-induced explosions, and wind turbines. These sounds cause the oysters to clamp against their shells and even shut down. Under high-frequency sounds, such as those caused by speedboats, Oysters did not react in any way.

JeJean-Charles Massabuau, director of research at France's National Centre for Scientific Research and leader of the study, told The New York Times that when oysters close their hull tightly to insulate them from noise, this behavior can change their natural laws. Massabuau added: "Oysters need hearing to help them hear weather and tide changes, and thus know when to lay eggs... Or to prepare for laying eggs, start eating and digesting, probably like when we hear and smell someone preparing dinner. ”

2. Oysters have a long history of food. When archaeologists find a pile of oyster shells, they learn that it is not far from a human colony or a village — most likely an ancient village. The shell mounds (shell piles) of the oldest oysters are radiocarbon tested to be 4000 BC, and eating oysters has been around the coast among Native Americans for thousands of years. It is also part of the historical record of the Mayans in ancient Egypt, Greece and Rome, medieval France and England, and maya.

3. Oyster shells can bring benefits to your garden. People living in coastal clusters may see the shells of clams, mussels and oysters used as decorations for the home garden, and they are more than just beautiful edging machines. When the shells decompose, they release calcium in the soil, which raises the pH of the soil and produces healthier plants.

4. The oyster has entered not one, but two Shakespearean plays. "I can use force to get what I want in the world as much as I want." (Why, then/the world's mine oyster/Which I with sword will open) This sentence is from Shakespeare's "Windsor's Merry Ladies" and is the source of this famous phrase. The unknown sentence in "Everybody Rejoices" (Shakespeare's 1599 comedy) reads, "Precious chastity, sir, is like a scrooge living in a broken house, and like a pearl in an ugly mussel shell." ”(Rich honesty dwells like a miser, sir, in a poor house, as your Pearl in your fouled Oyster.)

5. Oysters have the ability to purify water. Every day, just one oyster can filter about 0 gallons of water. They use their gills to divert water streams to filter nutrients and algae — making the water cleaner than before as it flows through them. Usually in places where oyster farms are farmed, similar to the Sound of Long Island off the Coast of Connecticut, oysters are used both to detoxify water and to become a local food source. In New York's most polluted waterway (where more than 350 acres of oyster farms once existed in history), oyster farms have been re-established over the past decade to purify water sources.

6. Flocks of oysters can create habitat for other marine life. When oysters multiply in large numbers in an area, they form reefs or riverbeds, which in turn provides an accessible anchor for other organisms (think sea anemones, small bivalves, and barnacles). These creatures can then attract small fish and shrimp, and they can bring larger fish.

7. Oyster farms are protected against the effects of climate change. Reefs formed by oysters not only purify water and provide habitat, but also mitigate coastal flooding and erosion by absorbing 80% or more of the wave energy, which is particularly valuable when major storms come. Moreover, oyster farms are much cheaper than man-made solutions such as partitions.

8. They don't boost your libido, but they may help you stay away from colds. The high levels of zinc in oysters can make your immune system stronger. So, so while there's not enough evidence that they're aphrodisiacs (they may boost testosterone secretion, but not much of a difference), they can keep you healthy during cold and flu seasons.

9. In many places, in the past, only 1% of oysters could survive, and until now they have been. In chesapeake, the history of oyster production in the United States can illustrate how countless oysters are canned at once and then shipped to deliver fresh cans throughout the United States. Demand for oysters in Central America led to its overproduction in Chesapeake, which also caused the oyster population there to collapse. Disease devastates oysters, while habitat is destroyed, leading to a further reduction in oyster populations. According to the American Society for the Conservation of Nature, 85 percent of oyster reefs around the world have disappeared, leading to the search for shellfish reefs – "the most dangerous marine habitats on earth."

10. But it is currently impossible to restore the number of oysters. Providing proper habitat and helping oysters spawn in historic areas, where people have seen a rebound in oyster populations – however, just to return to the pomp of most waterways nearly 150 years ago, there is still a lot of hard work for us to do.

This article is translated from mnn and published by Translator Kevin Sister under the Creative Commons License (BY-NC).