Abstract
Environmental history (regimes of water quality to which an organism has been exposed in the past) may influence how the physiology of eastern oysters Crassostrea virginica responds to future environmental conditions caused by climate change. Previous research has examined environmental history in a 1-dimensional framework, failing to capture environmental history complexity through space and time. In this study, we examined environmental history as a multi-faceted parameter, incorporating abiotic water quality components, such as temperature, pH, and salinity, that differ among locations. We also assessed how different lengths of environmental histories, defined as proximal and distal, affected oyster physiology and stress response. Finally, we compared the relative influence of abiotic components of environmental history on oyster physiology. We found that physiology and stress response are differentially affected by proximal and distal environmental history, demonstrating the importance of examining environmental history as a multi-faceted and dynamic parameter. Specifically, distal environmental history primarily influenced condition index and total antioxidant potential, while proximal environmental history primarily influenced glycogen content. Salinity of distal environmental history significantly shaped condition index, establishing salinity as a principal factor when considering acclimatization to variable environments. No water quality components were significant influences on glycogen and total antioxidant potential, providing opportunities for research on other components of environmental history. Identifying the temporal portion of oysters’ environmental history that influences physiology supports future efforts to predict population tolerance to climate change. Additionally, examining multiple abiotic and biotic components of environmental history can elucidate means of acclimatization to future environmental change.
Highlights
Environmental history may influence how populations respond to climate change, so it is critical to evaluate how environmental histories shape the physiological processes of species, like the eastern oyster Crassostrea virginica (Gmelin, 1791), that play
We found that distal history explained patterns of condition index and proximal history of glycogen content, likely representative of different physiological processes in juvenile oysters
We identified salinity as an important driver of physiological responses to changes in environmental conditions over the temporal and spatial scales used in this study
Summary
Environmental history may influence how populations respond to climate change, so it is critical to evaluate how environmental histories shape the physiological processes of species, like the eastern oyster Crassostrea virginica (Gmelin, 1791), that playPublisher: Inter-Research · www.int-res.comMar Ecol Prog Ser 674: 115–130, 2021 de Paiva et al 2018). Environmental history may influence how populations respond to climate change, so it is critical to evaluate how environmental histories shape the physiological processes of species, like the eastern oyster Crassostrea virginica (Gmelin, 1791), that play. Offspring whose parents were exposed to elevated pCO2 had faster shell growth and development rates compared to offspring with no parental history of pCO2 exposure (Parker et al 2015). This prior work has demonstrated multiple timescales of environmental history that shape oyster physiology, few have examined the relative contributions of time periods of environmental history towards oyster physiological performance
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