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Ecophysiology of the Olympia Oyster, Ostrea lurida, and Pacific Oyster, Crassostrea gigas

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Abstract

The native Olympia oyster, Ostrea lurida, was once abundant in many US Pacific Northwest (PNW) estuaries, but was decimated by human activity in the late nineteenth early to twentieth centuries. Having been the subject of only few modern, detailed studies, a dearth of basic physiological information surrounded O. lurida and how it compared to the now dominant, non-native Pacific oyster, Crassostrea gigas. Utilizing laboratory and in situ studies in Yaquina Bay, OR, we explored the clearance rates of both species across a wide range of conditions. Pacific oysters not only had greater size-specific clearance rates than Olympia oysters, but also had a lower optimum temperature. Clearance rates for both species were reduced at lower salinity, at lower organic content, and at higher turbidity. Clearance rate models were constructed for each species using three approaches: (1) a single mechanistic model that incorporated feeding response functions of each species to the effects of temperature, salinity, turbidity, and seston organic content based on laboratory studies; (2) another additive model in which the number and type of response functions from laboratory studies were allowed to vary; and (3) a statistical model that utilized environmental data collected during in situ feeding trials. Clearance rate models that correlated feeding activity with in situ environmental data were found to often better predict oyster clearance rates (based on Adj R 2) for both species in Yaquina Bay, OR, than mechanistic, additive models based on laboratory feeding response functions; however, in situ correlative models varied in accuracy by species and season. This work represents important first steps towards better understanding the physiological ecology of the native Olympia oyster and how it differs from introduced and now dominant Pacific oyster.

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Change history

  • 20 September 2018

    In the original article there is an error on page 522 in the third paragraph of the Methods section. There is an erroneous 0 in the TWW coefficient. The corrected text is as follows.

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Acknowledgments

MWG and CJL would like to thank the National Estuarine Research Reserve System, NOAA (Award No. NA10NOS4200025) for funding experiments and the Molluscan Broodstock Program staff for providing seawater, algae, and laboratory assistance. Additional support to MWG was provided by the Oregon Society of Conchologists, the Mamie Markham Research Award, and Anja Robinson Fellowship from the Hatfield Marine Science Center, OSU, and by the USDA-ARS Shellfish program at HMSC (CRIS project 5358-6300-00200D). This manuscript was greatly improved from the reviews of Philine zu Ermgassen and two anonymous reviewers.

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    Matthew W. Gray & Chris J. Langdon

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Gray, M.W., Langdon, C.J. Ecophysiology of the Olympia Oyster, Ostrea lurida, and Pacific Oyster, Crassostrea gigas . Estuaries and Coasts 41, 521–535 (2018). https://doi.org/10.1007/s12237-017-0273-7

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