How do life-history traits influence the fate of intertidal and subtidal Mytilus galloprovincialis in a changing climate?

7 pages, 4 figures

Coastal organisms (i.e. intertidal or upper subtidal species) live in between the terrestrial and aquatic realms, making them particularly vulnerable to climate change. In this context, intertidal organisms may suffer from the predicted sea level rise (increasing their submerged time) while subtidal organisms may suffer from anthropically-induced hypoxia and its consequences. Although there is some knowledge on how coastal organisms adapt to environmental changes, the biochemical and physiological consequences of prolonged submergence periods have not yet been well characterized. Thus, the present study aimed to assess the biochemical alterations experienced by intertidal organisms maintained always under tidal exposure (IT); intertidal organisms maintained submersed (IS); subtidal organisms maintained always submersed (SS); subtidal organisms under tidal exposure (ST). For this, Mytilus galloprovincialis specimens from contiguous intertidal and subtidal populations were exposed to the above mentioned conditions for twenty-eight days. Results indicated that both intertidal and subtidal mussels are adapted to the oxidative stress pressure caused by tidal and submerged conditions tested. Intertidal mussels did not seem to be negatively affected by submergence while ST specimens were energetically challenged by tidal exposure. Both IT and ST mussels consumed glycogen to fuel up mechanisms aiming to maintain redox homeostasis. Overall, both intertidal and subtidal populations were capable of coping with tidal exposure, although the strategies employed differed between them. These findings indicate that although IT mussels may not significantly suffer from the longer-term submergence, hypoxic events occurring in the context of global warming and other anthropogenic impacts may have consequences on both IT and ST populations. Altogether, it is important to highlight that tides may act as a confounding factor in experiments concerning coastal organisms, as it causes additional physiological and biochemical perturbations

Madalena Andrade benefited from a PhD grant (SFRH/BD/143422/2019) given by the National Funds through the Portuguese Science Foundation (FCT). Rosa Freitas was funded by national funds (OE), through FCT, in the scope of the framework contract foreseen in the numbers 4, 5 and 6 of the article 23, of the Decree-Law 57/2016, of August 29, changed by Law 57/2017, of July 19. This work was financially supported by the project BISPECIAl: BIvalveS under Polluted Environment and ClImate chAnge PTDC/CTA-AMB/28425/2017 (POCI-01-0145-FEDER-028425) funded by FEDER, through COMPETE2020 - Programa Operacional Competitividade e Internacionalização (POCI), and by national funds (OE), through FCT/MCTES. Thanks are due for the financial support to CESAM (UIDB/50017/2020+UIDP/50017/2020). The authors also acknowledge to the RED RIESCOS - Evaluación de los Efectos de los Contaminantes Emergentes en Organismos Acuáticos y sobre la Salud Humana, from the Programa Iberoamericano de Ciencia y Tecnología para el Desarrollo (CYTED) with reference 419RT0578, and to the Integrated Programme of SR&TD “Smart Valorization of Endogenous Marine Biological Resources Under a Changing Climate” (reference Centro-01-0145-FEDER-000018), co-funded by Centro (2020) program, Portugal 2020, European Union, through the European Regional Development Fund

With funding from the Spanish government through the ‘Severo Ochoa Centre of Excellence’ accreditation (CEX2019-000928-S)

Peer reviewed