Meeting Abstract
100.3 Sunday, Jan. 6 Ocean acidification weakens attachment of Mytilid mussel byssal threads O’DONNELL, M.J.*; GEORGE, M.; CARRINGTON, E.; Univ. of Washington, Friday Harbor Laboratories; Univ. of Washington, Friday Harbor Laboratories; Univ. of Washington, Friday Harbor Laboratories mooseo@moosecraft.org
Organism interactions with the physical environment are mediated by biological structures such as shells, which isolate organisms from the external environment, and adhesives, which keep organisms located in suitable habitat. Like many chemical processes, creating these structures takes place in the context of the local seawater chemistry. Many investigations have explored the effects of altered carbonate chemistry on the rate at which structures are produced, but little is known about the relative quality of these materials for performing their assigned tasks. Here we report on the properties of biological materials created by Mytilus trossulus exposed to a range of pCO2 conditions (from ~400 to 1600 µatm) to elucidate the shape of the response curve. Byssal threads attach Mytilid mussels to the shore. Most regions of these threads showed no variability in response to altered pH with the exception of the adhesive that secures the thread to the substratum which showed a significant decline in tenacity. Additional metrics, including gonad index, shell strength, and overall condition also showed no effect of CO2. However, byssal thread weakening likely compromises the ability of the byssus structure to hold individuals to the substratum.
