Abstract
As ocean temperatures continue to rise due to climate change, many questions remain on how coastal species will cope with a changing environment. The effects of increased temperatures on bivalves has been well examined through single-species studies, showing reductions in tissue mass, shell growth, oxygen uptake, feeding rates, and survival. However, the consequences of these effects on predator–prey interactions remain poorly understood. We examined how increased temperatures (30, 32, 34 °C) and the presence of water-borne predation cues from blue crabs (Callinectes sapidus) affected the morphology and growth rate of southern ribbed mussels (Geukensia granosissima), as well as their handling times when attacked by predatory crabs. Although southern ribbed mussels were able to survive under chronic heat stress, exposure to higher temperatures resulted in more elongated shell shapes. Growth rates in mussel wet weight were higher for mussels reared in the presence of a predator than in the predator-free control, but only in the low-temperature treatment. Likewise, handling times were greater for crabs eating mussels grown in the presence of a predator, but the effect was lost at the mid- and high-temperature treatments. These findings suggest that predation-induced defenses were suppressed when prey were under chronic thermal stress, which could make mussels more vulnerable to predation. The presence of predation cues in natural environments should be taken in consideration when estimating or predicting the effects of climate change on organisms.
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Acknowledgements
We are grateful to Kevin Stichnot and Zach Ostroff for their assistance in building the temperature-controlled experimental system used for this study and to Dr. David Jones (College of Marine Science, University of South Florida) and Dr. David Kimbro (Department of Earth and Environmental Science, Northeastern University) for their support in data analysis and experimental design. Many thanks also to Destiny Reese and Ethan Taylor for their technical support throughout the experimental period. We acknowledge Pinellas County Parks & Conservation Resources for providing permission to collect organisms from Weedon Island Preserve, Florida, USA. This material is based upon work supported by the National Science Foundation Graduate Research Fellowship (Award No. 1746051) and Florida-Georgia Louis Stokes Alliance for Minority Participation (FGLSAMP) Bridge to the Doctorate award (HRD No. 1139850). Any opinion, findings, and conclusions or recommendations expressed in this material are those of the author(s) and do not necessarily reflect the views of the National Science Foundation. Further funding was provided by the Alfred P. Sloan Foundation Minority Ph.D. (MPHD) Program (Grant No. 2012-3-07) and the University of South Florida, Bridge to the Doctorate Endowed Graduate Fellowship (Fund No. 266005). This work was supported, in part, by the University of South Florida Research & Innovation Internal Awards Program (Grant No. 0084477). Animal illustrations courtesy of the Integration and Application Network, University of Maryland Center for Environmental Science (ian.umces.edu/symbols/).
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Freytes-Ortiz, I.M., Stallings, C.D. Elevated temperatures suppress inducible defenses and alter shell shape of intertidal mussel. Mar Biol 165, 113 (2018). https://doi.org/10.1007/s00227-018-3371-6
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DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/s00227-018-3371-6