We investigated the effects of seawater equilibrated with CO2-enriched air (2000 ppm, pH 7.4) on the early development of the mussel Mytilus galloprovincialis. Mussel embryos were incubated for 144 h (6 d) in control and high-CO2 seawater to compare embryogenesis, larval growth and morphology with ordinary light, polarized light, and scanning electron microscopy. Embryogenesis was unaffected by...

The triangle sail mussel Hyriopsis cumingii (Lea) is the most important mussel species used for commercial freshwater pearl production in China. Mussel color is an important indicator of pearl quality. To identify genes involved in the nacre coloring, we conducted RNA-seq and obtained 541,268 sequences (298 bp average size) and 440,034 sequences (293 bp average size) in secreting purple and whi...

Ocean acidification (OA) is altering the chemistry of the world's oceans at rates unparalleled in the past roughly 1 million years. Understanding the impacts of this rapid change in baseline carbonate chemistry on marine organisms needs a precise, mechanistic understanding of physiological responses to carbonate chemistry. Recent experimental work has shown shell development and growth in some ...

During the early 1990s, 2 Eurasian macrofouling mollusks, the zebra mussel Dreissena polymorpha and the quagga mussel D. bugensis, colonized the freshwater section of the St. Lawrence River and decimated native mussel populations through competitive interference. For several years, zebra mussels dominated molluscan biomass in the river; however, quagga mussels have increased in abundance and ar...

The calcareous shells secreted by bivalve molluscs display diverse and species specific structural compositions, which indicates possible divergent biomineralization processes. Thus, studying multiple mollusc species will provide a more comprehensive understanding of shell formation. Here, the transcriptomes of the mantle tissues responsible for shell deposition were characterized in three comm...

Shellfish farming contributes to nutrient removal in coastal and estuarine systems, as bivalves incorporate nutrients into their tissues shells, which is removed from the marine system on harvest. Fourteen locations around UK were surveyed explore geographic variation carbon, nitrogen phosphorus content of tissue shell blue mussels. Phosphorus had a significant negative relationship with mean a...

Invasive non-native species frequently occur in very high densities. When such invaders present an economic or ecological nuisance, this biomass is typically removed and landfill is the most common destination, which is undesirable from both an economic and ecological perspective. The zebra mussel, Dreissena polymorpha, has invaded large parts of Europe and North America, and is routinely remov...

Ocean acidification (OA) is known to affect bivalve early life-stages. We tested responses of blue mussel larvae to a wide range of pH in order to identify their tolerance threshold. Our results confirmed that decreasing seawater pH and decreasing saturation state increases larval mortality rate and the percentage of abnormally developing larvae. Virtually no larvae reared at average pHT 7.16 w...

coastal monitoring programs are valuable tools for assessing the current state of coastal environments, for determining spatial and temporal trends in pollution and identifying potential sources of contaminants. monitoring often involves organisms from different environments, such as estuarine and intertidal zones, where conditions (e.g. salinity, temperature) fluctuate. Biomarkers “report” on ...

Within impounded sections of the rivers Rhine and Meuse, epibenthic macroinvertebrate communities are impoverished and dominated by non-native invasive species such as the zebra mussel (Dreissena polymorpha) and quagga mussel (Dreissena rostriformis bugensis). In the winter of 2012 management of the water-level resulted in a low-water event in the River Nederrijn, but not in the River Meuse. Lo...