Meeting Abstract
P2-99 - Reduce, reuse, respire: A tale of 2 environmental factors’ responses on mussel respiration Delgado, AK*; Nishizaki, MT; Carleton College, Northfield, MN; Friday Harbor Laboratories, Friday Harbor, WA delgado.andi27@gmail.com
Mussels are important due to their role as ecosystem engineers within the intertidal as well as a valuable fishery. However, these organisms are under threat of not only increasing ocean temperatures, but could be made more vulnerable as a result of low wave action at their respective sites. The physiological performance of Mytilus trossulus was quantified by measuring respiration rates under five different water temperatures (e.g., 5, 11, 17, 23, and 29° C) and five different flow velocities (e.g, 2, 4, 6, 10, and 20 cm s-1 in a fully crossed design. Results suggest an important interaction between temperature and flow impacting respiration rates. At the highest flow of 20 cm s-1, mussels had higher respiration rates and were generally consistent at the flows of 4, 6, and 10 cm/s. However, at the lowest flow of 2 cm/s, respiration rates were higher than the intermediate flows. This can be applied to future research into performance in mussel beds under future climate conditions, with mussels deeper within the bed being able to respire at lower flows contrary to prior thought.