Legacy of past exposure to hypoxia and warming regulates an ecosystem service provided by oysters

Abstract

Climate change is altering patterns and processes across all levels of biological organization (Pinsky et al., 2020). Phenotypic plasticity is an important component of organismal responses to rapid environmental change (Fox et al., 2019) and can facilitate individual survival in response to changing and variable environments (Merilä & Hendry, 2014). Plasticity in traits such as growth, fecundity, and foraging influence not only individual performance and population growth (Green et al., 2022;Snell-Rood et al., 2018) but can also scale

Impacts of Climate Change on Marine Foundation Species

“…Dissolved oxygen is declining in marine systems due in part to rising temperatures as well as increased nutrient loading into coastal systems (Breitburg et al 2018), while intense precipitation events, associated with flooding and low salinity, are increasing. Besides causing mass mortality associated with prolonged severe hypoxia (∼5 days) (Lenihan & Peterson 1998), diel cyclic hypoxia caused by changes in photosynthesis and exacerbated by warming can impact bivalves and their ecosystem services (Donelan et al 2023). Altered rainfall and runoff patterns have been implicated in disease cycles, such as dermo occurrence in Crassostrea virginica oyster populations on the US Gulf and East Coasts (Bushek et al 2012).…”