The Influence of Organic Material and Temperature on the Burial Tolerance of the Blue Mussel, Mytilus edulis: Considerations for the Management of Marine Aggregate Dredging.

Rationale And Experimental Approach: Aggregate dredging is a growing source of anthropogenic disturbance in coastal UK waters and has the potential to impact marine systems through the smothering of benthic fauna with organically loaded screening discards. This study investigates the tolerance of the blue mussel, Mytilus edulis to such episodic smothering events using a multi-factorial design, including organic matter concentration, temperature, sediment fraction size and duration of burial as important predictor variables.

Results And Discussion: Mussel mortality was significantly higher in organically loaded burials when compared to control sediments after just 2 days.