Meeting Abstract

P3-2   -   Impacts of parental water quality history on larval tolerance to ocean acidification in the eastern oyster, Crassostrea virginica Himes, AR*; Rivest, EB; Virginia Institute of Marine Science, William & Mary; Virginia Institute of Marine Science, William & Mary arhimes@vims.edu

With continuing anthropogenic emissions of greenhouse gases, ocean acidification is projected to increase in severity over the coming centuries. This will create particularly intense challenges for sessile calcifiers as they will be unable to escape stressful conditions. The eastern oyster, C. virginica,, is one such species threatened by future ocean acidification, which is of increasing concern as this species provides vital ecosystem services within the regions it inhabits as well as being the basis for a growing aquaculture industry. As previous studies have shown that molluscan larvae are the most vulnerable life stage to environmental stress, it is of increasing importance to understand both how eastern oyster larvae respond to varying acidified conditions as well as to understand what, if any, adaptive potential exists within this species. Adult oysters were therefore collected from two different wild reefs within Chesapeake Bay that experience different water quality conditions. In particular, differing salinity and alkalinity conditions were targeted as these conditions dictate the level of osmotic and ionic regulation oysters must maintain for proper growth and reproduction. Acid-base stress engages similar cellular mechanisms to low salinity stress, indicating the potential for populations exposed to more consistent low salinity conditions to be more well adapted to future ocean acidification. Additionally, larvae from one of the two selected reefs were exposed to a series of acidification conditions to help better define the threshold at which acidification stress begins to impact larval development. These results will help to inform the severity with which climate change will impact C. virginica and whether or not some unseen resiliency exists within certain populations.