Frequent monitoring of temperature: an essential requirement for site selection in bivalve aquaculture in tropical-temperate transition zones (original) (raw)

Upper temperature tolerance of ten bivalve species off Peru and Chile related to

2006

The upper temperature tolerance of 10 commercially important South American bivalve species (Gari solida, Semele solida, Semele corrugata, Protothaca thaca, Venus antiqua. Tagelus dombeii, Ensis macha, Aulacomya ater, Choromytilus chorus and Argopecten purpura tus) off Peru and Chile was determined and compared in order to study some of the effects of El Nino. Due to higher habitat temperatures in Peru, LTs0 (lethal temperatures for 50% of an experimental population) are higher than in Chile. In Chile LTs0 for 6 of 8 species studied varied only by 1.2"C. This might be explained by the similar temperatures and living conditions in the habitats of these species. Especially for Peru, observed differences in LTSo could be related to different geographical distributions. For all species temperature increases recorded during the strongest El Nino of this century (1982-83) did not exceed the temperature tolerance interval, TT1 (difference between after 24 h and mean annual water tempe...

Contrasting responsiveness of four ecologically and economically important bivalves to simulated heat waves

Marine Environmental Research, 2021

Heat waves are expected to increase in duration and frequency, impacting coastal ecosystems, especially intertidal organisms living near their thermal tolerance limits. Sedentary infaunal species are limited to some extent in escapes from sudden temperature changes, rather modifications to their physiology and behaviour are expected. This may lead to strong ecological and economic impacts on commercial bivalve species, such as Venerupis corrugata, Ruditapes decussatus, the introduced Ruditapes philippinarum and Cerastoderma edule, the most relevant in NW Spain. We investigated lethal and sublethal effects of heat during low tide on these species in the laboratory. Summer temperatures experienced within field, shallow sediments at approximately 2 cm depth i.e. 20 • C (control), 27 • C, 32 • C, and 37 • C, were replicated during four consecutive days and the diffusion of heat at the burrowing depth of each species was estimated; temperature exposure was expressed as degree hours above 22 • C. After two days of tidal exposure, C. edule and V. corrugata suffered significant mortalities, and also the most dramatic decrease in scope for growth (SFG) as well as reduction in burrowing activity. After four days under stress, all species had negative SFG. On recovery, species showed compensation at longer exposures, particularly C. edule. These effects of temperature on mortality, growth potential and burrowing ability may increase the time to achieve commercial size and exposure to predation. Particularly, V. corrugata, with a center of distribution lower in the intertidal and subtidal, and C. edule, shallower in the sediment, may be the most affected. Clearly the intensity and frequency of heat waves will affect these key species in the intertidal sediment flats changing ecosystem functioning and fisheries management strategies.

Potential Influence of Climate Change on Shellfish Aquaculture System in the Temperate Region

The Korean Journal of Malacology, 2012

Aquaculture is challenged by a number of constraints with future efforts towards sustainable production. Global climate change has a potential damage to the sustainability by changing environmental surroundings unfavorably. The damaging parameters identified are water temperature, sea level, surface physical energy, precipitation, solar radiation, ocean acidification, and so on. Of them, temperature, mostly temperature elevation, occupies significant concern among marine ecologists and aquaculturists. Ocean acidification particularly draws shellfish aquaculturists' attention as it alters the marine chemistry, shifting the equilibrium towards more dissolved CO 2 and hydrogen ions (H +) and thus influencing signaling pathways on shell formation, immune system, and other biological processes. Temperature elevation by climate change is of double-sidedness: it can be an opportunistic parameter besides being a generally known damaging parameter in aquaculture. It can provide better environments for faster and longer growth for aquaculture species. It is also somehow advantageous for alleviation of aquaculture expansion pressure in a given location by opening a gate for new species and aquaculture zone expansion northward in the northern hemisphere, otherwise unavailable due to temperature limit. But in the science of climate change, the ways of influence on aquaculture are complex and ambiguous, and hence are still hard to identify and quantify. At the same time considerable parts of our knowledge on climate change effects on aquaculture are from the estimates from data of fisheries and agriculture. The consequences may be different from what they really are, particularly in the temperature region. In reality, bivalves and tunicates hung or caged in the longline system are often exposed to temperatures higher than those they encounter in nature, locally driving the farmed shellfish into an upper tolerable temperature extreme. We review recent climate change and following environment changes which can be factors or potential factors affecting shellfish aquaculture production in the temperate region.

Bivalve condition index as an indicator of aquaculture intensity: A meta-analysis

Ecological Indicators, 2013

Shellfish aquaculture implies the placement of artificial structures in the coastal environment and the alteration of natural bivalve populations, which calls for the establishment of legislative regulatory frameworks based on an ecosystem approach. One of the challenges for policy makers is the need to monitor the effectiveness of management actions. In this study, a meta-analysis across different bays, covering a large spatial scale in Atlantic Canada, was performed to test the response of two potential indicators of aquaculture intensity: (1) the bivalve growth using both Dynamic Energy Budget (DEB) and Scope For Growth (SFG) approaches, and (2) the bivalve condition index (CI = (meat weight/shell weight) × 100). Our underlying premise was that overstocking of bivalves leads to increased competition for food resources, which might ultimately have a significant effect on bivalve growth performance and the CI. Bivalve growth performance for cohorts of Mytilus edulis and Crassostrea virginica were simulated by combining satellite remote sensing (temperature and chlorophyll) with individual based models using both DEB and SFG approaches. These models were calibrated for each cohort, by adjusting the half-saturation coefficient of the food ingestion function term (X K), which is a common parameter related to feeding behavior in both approaches. A significant correlation between X K and lease coverage (lease area/bay area, dimensionless) was found for M. edulis. However, because of unrealistic X K values in some M. edulis cohorts and the lack of consistent simulations for C. virginica precluded using X K as a reliable indicator of aquaculture intensity. By contrast, according to the observed results CI emerged as a good indicator of aquaculture intensity for both species. A General Additive Model (GAM) for C. virginica provided a regression that included the initial dry meat weight as a linear term and the lease area as a non-linear term, explaining a total deviance of 59.9% in describing final CI values. The GAM for M. edulis included only non-linear terms, lease coverage, and lease area, explaining a total deviance of 61.0%. Since the CI theoretically integrates the effects of changing trophic conditions over time, the good relationship between the CI and lease/bay characteristics provides a scientific framework for its use as a reliable ecological indicator of aquaculture intensity. From an applied perspective, this finding is of relevance because the CI is easy to measure and is widely available in government and industry datasets.

Thermal tolerance ranges and climate variability: A comparison between bivalves from differing climates

Journal of Experimental Marine Biology and Ecology, 2007

The climate variability hypothesis proposes that in variable temperate climates poikilothermic animals have wide thermal tolerance windows, whereas in constant tropical climates they have small thermal tolerance windows. In this study we quantified and compared the upper and lower lethal thermal tolerance limits of numerous bivalve species from a tropical (Roebuck Bay, north western Australia) and a temperate (Wadden Sea, north western Europe) tidal flat. Species from tropical Roebuck Bay had higher upper and lower lethal thermal limits than species from the temperate Wadden Sea, and Wadden Sea species showed an ability to survive freezing temperatures. The increased freezing resistance of the Wadden Sea species resulted in thermal tolerance windows that were on average 7°C greater than the Roebuck Bay species. Furthermore, at a local-scale, the upper lethal thermal limits of the Wadden Sea species were positively related to submersion time and thus to encountered temperature variation, but this was not the case for the Roebuck Bay species. A review of previous studies, at a global scale, showed that upper lethal thermal limits of tropical species are closer to maximum habitat temperatures than the upper lethal thermal limits of temperate species, suggesting that temperate species are better adapted to temperature variation. In this study, we show for the first time, at both local and global scales, that the lethal thermal limits of bivalves support the climate variability effect in the marine environment.

The effects of water temperature in aquaculture management

Applied Economics, 2006

This paper studies the impact of water temperature on the optimal management of the ration size and fish weight in offshore farm aquaculture. A model for the expected returns of the farm is developed which includes a fish growth function influenced by fish weight, the ration size and water temperature. The output transportation cost has an ambiguous effect on the harvesting size, but the impact of water temperature is positive. These results explain empirical evidence in the Canary Islands that unfavorable economic conditions could be overcome by environmental advantageous conditions raising productivity.

Aquaculture planning for suspended bivalve farming systems: The integration of physiological response of green mussel with environmental variability in site selection

Ecological Indicators, 2011

Bivalve Condition Index (CI) is widely employed in environmental monitoring programmes as it integrates physiological responses to stress with changes in somatic growth. Besides indicating, the commercial quality of a bivalve population it may be also be used to compare the relative health of animals in nearby populations. In this study, CI of green mussels, Perna viridis was evaluated as the intrinsic response to the variations in the environment in two potential mussel mariculture sites in the tropical monsoon region with diverse remoteness to riverine outflow. Condition index of mussels from site with relatively higher riverine influence (RI) was compared with mussels from area of reduced riverine (RR) influence along Karnataka coast (Eastern Arabian Sea). The dominant patterns of spatial trends in 12 environmental variables (temperature, salinity, pH, dissolved oxygen, rainfall, chlorophyll-a (chl-a), suspended particulate matter (SPM) particulate organic matter (POM), particulate inorganic matter (PIM), POM/SPM, chla/POM and PIM%) of the sites were resolved by Principal Component Analysis (PCA). The stepwise multiple regression analysis related the spatial variability in CI to variations in water temperature and organic content of the seston (chlorophyll-a and particulate organic matter). The discriminant analysis performed with monthly mean water temperature, chl-a levels and CI ratio [high CI ratio (CI high ) and low CI ratio (CI low )] indicated that 83.9% of the CI high was associated with high chl-a and high water temperature group whereas, 72.4% of CI low were associated with low chl-a and low water temperature regime. The RR site presented less variation in environmental parameters offering a more conducive environment for the growth of mussels, characterised by better CI with low seasonal variations. Whereas, in the site proximate to riverine discharge, reserves were alternatively channelled into energy-consuming processes and hence unfavourable environmental conditions showed poor tissue condition due to utilization of energy reserves which were potentially destined for growth. Thus, average CI, besides its representation of the general health condition of the bivalves can potentially be used in selecting suitable sites for bivalve mariculture in comparable hydrological environment.