The role of stress tolerance on marine invasive mussels

Abstract

Marine bioinvasion has been increasing exponentially due to intensive human activities. To manage the threats posed by marine bioinvasion, it is important to understand the key factors for invasion success. Stress tolerance is thought to play an important role in the invasion process, however, little is known of the nature of this tolerance, particularly whether stress tolerance is species- or population-specific. To determine this, laboratory experiments were conducted to investigate differential tolerance of populations of a cosmopolitan marine invasive mussel, Perna viridis, and whether stress tolerance can be altered through pre-selection of individuals. Comparisons were firstly made between two local P. viridis populations from the intertidal and subtidal zones to test if stress tolerance was population-specific. Individuals from the intertidal population had higher baseline heart rates, lower critical salinity values, Scrit, for cardiac activity and longer survival duration at low salinity than individuals from the subtidal population, supporting the presence of population level differences in stress tolerance. Mortality of P. viridis was also compared at sites in both their introduced range (Hong Kong) and native range (Indonesia) which revealed that individuals from the Hong Kong population were more stress tolerant than their native counterparts in Indonesia. Using the same experimental approach, the effect of pre-selection to stress (a prior pre-selection to hypoxia and a subsequent exposure to heat) showed that stress tolerance can be enhanced by pre-selection. The second part of this study investigated whether invasive mussels, Brachidontes variabilis and P. virdis, were more stress tolerant than the native, non-invasive, Septifer virgatus. Laboratory experiments compared the Scrit as well as critical temperature, Hcrit for cardiac activity. Mortality and byssus thread production were also measured in a factorial design with different combinations of temperature (16, 24 and 32 °C) and salinity (8, 16, 32 p.s.u) for 15 days. The two invasive mussels had a higher Hcrit and lower Scrit, which indicated a higher stress tolerance, than the non-invasive mussel. The mortality rate of P. viridis was faster than in B. variabilis and S. virgatus at 8 p.s.u. whereas S. virgatus was the only mussel that exhibited mortality in the medium hyposalinity (16 p.s.u.) and showed much slower byssus attachment than the invasive mussels, suggesting that the invasive mussels are more stress tolerant to heat and medium hyposalinity than the non-invasive species. Overall, stress tolerance proved to be higher in the invasive than non-invasive species and was also population-specific with higher stress tolerance in the invasive population, which may be attributed to the selection of more tolerant individuals during the invasion process. Such a process may occur when founding individuals successfully pass through an invasion process, which may increase the overall mean population-level of stress tolerance and explain why invasive species are generally more stress tolerant than native species. Thus stress tolerance plays an important role in invasion success and invasive species with high stress tolerance may be favoured by climate change, including ocean warming and increased precipitation, which may extend their current distribution range.