Effects of temperature, salinity and body size on the physiological responses of the Iwagaki oyster Crassostrea nippona

Abstract

The physiological responses of the juvenile Crassostrea nippona in terms of filtration, oxygen consumption and ammonia excretion to changes in temperature (16–32°C), salinity (15–35 psu) and body size (small, medium and large) were investigated. In this study, the values of filtration rate (FR), oxygen consumption rate (OCR) and ammonia excretion rate (AER) increased with temperature rising from 16°C to 24°C, reaching the highest values at 24°C and 28°C; with any further increase in temperature above this limit, these values decrease drastically (p < .05). The highest Q10 coefficients were 2.75 for large, 3.54 for medium at 16–20 and 3.47 for small size at 20–24°C respectively. Moreover, the responses of FR and OCR were found to be influenced significantly by salinity, tending to increase concomitantly with salinity up to 25–30 psu, though the values of these parameters were diminished dramatically (p < .05) above this level, showing a reverse pattern from that observed in AER, which firstly decreased to the lowest level at 25 and 30 psu, and then severely (p < .05) increased to the highest level at 35 psu. In addition, the low O:N ratios of all sizes of C. nippona at 16°C and 30–35 psu were indicative of a protein-dominated catabolism, whereas the O:N ratios of large size at 20–32°C and all sizes at 20–30 psu, indicating that the metabolic energy from protein diminished and lipid and carbohydrate were used as the energy substrates. Physiological rates of C. nippona were well correlated with its size. The average values of mass exponents (b-values) estimated in the present study were 0.657 for OCR and 0.776 for AER at different temperatures, and 0.647 for OCR and 0.767 for AER at varying salinities, signifying that physiological process of C. nippona becomes relatively slower with increasing body size regardless of temperature or salinity. Finally, our results confirm that the optimal temperature and salinity for juvenile C. nippona lie within 24–28°C and 25–30 psu respectively. The results of physiological traits in response to environmental factors of this species are informative in site selection for the cultivation.