Even in nitrogen-replete ecosystems, microhabitats exist where local-scale nutrient limitation occurs. For example, coastal waters of the northeastern Pacific Ocean are characterized by high nitrate concentrations associated with upwelling. However, macroalgae living in high-zone tide pools on adjacent rocky shores are isolated from this upwelled nitrate for extended periods of time, leading to...

Zebra mussel Dreissena polymorpha is a Ponto-Caspian species invasive in Europe and North America, with great environmental impact. It lives byssally attached to hard substrata in large aggregations, which is often explained by its preferences for conspecifics, though direct evidence for such preferences has been rather limited so far. We studied the reactions of zebra mussels to conspecifics, ...

Carbon nanotubes (CNTs) are one of the few truly novel nanomaterials and are being incorporated into a wide range of products, which will lead to environmental release and potential ecological impacts. We examined the toxicity of CNTs to marine mussels and the effect of mussels on CNT fate and transport by exposing mussels to 1, 2, or 3mg CNTsl(-1) for four weeks and measuring mussel clearance ...

A 3 year study was conducted to evaluate mussels as bioindicators of faecal contamination in coastal ecosystems of California. Haemolymph samples from 4680 mussels (Mytilus spp.) were tested for Cryptosporidium genotypes using PCR amplification and DNA sequence analysis. Our hypotheses were that mussels collected from sites near livestock runoff or human sewage outflow would be more likely to c...

The relationship between hemic neoplasia, a blood cell disorder in bivalve molluscs, and chemical contaminants was evaluated in the common mussel (Mytilus edulis complex). Hemic neoplasia (HN) is endemic to mussel populations in Puget Sound. The prevalence of hemic neoplasia ranged from 0 to 30% in mussels from nine sites in Puget Sound, Washington. Organic chemical contamination in sediment fr...

Cu is an essential trace element but can be highly toxic to aquatic organisms at elevated concentrations. Greater use of CuO engineered nanoparticles (ENPs) may lead to increased concentrations of CuO ENPs in aquatic environments causing potential ecological injury. We examined the toxicity of CuO ENPs to marine mussels and the influence of mussels on the fate and transport of CuO ENPs. We expo...

Although zebra mussels (Dreissena polymorpha) have invaded waters across Europe for over 200 years, they colonized Ireland only within the past decade. To test the hypothesis that Ireland was colonized by adultD. polymorpha, we examined mussels from different sites along the Lower Shannon River system in Ireland for the presence of host specific and generalist endosymbionts.Within the mantle ca...

1. Zebra mussels aggregate to form dense colonies where, depending on the flow rate, individuals in different vertical locations within the colony may experience restricted food availability. 2. Using P-labelled Chlamydomonas angulosa, we found ingestion rates of individual mussels located at the surface to exceed those in the bottom of a 6 cm thick colony by up to 75%. 3. Higher velocities (10...

The depuration effectiveness of Poliovirus 1 and HAV contaminated mussels, when subjected to flowing ozonized water, was evaluated. Mussels were experimentally contaminated and then depurated up to 72 hours using a pilot depuration system with ozone treated and untreated water. The results showed that viral infectivity titter decreased more rapidly in mussels subjected to ozonized water (from 1...

The aim of this study was to evaluate, at a laboratory scale, the ability of this microorganism to grow in seawater and bioaccumulate in mussels (Mytilus galloprovincialis) maintained in constantly aerated tanks, containing twenty litres of artificial seawater. Three concentrations of A. butzleri LMG 10828(T) were tested (about 5 × 10⁶ CFU/mL, 5 × 10⁴ CFU/mL, and 5 × 10² CFU/mL). Following cont...