Patterns of pelagic dispersal of the early stages of wild mussels are important ecologically for maintaining population connectivity, and economically for supplying wild seed for mussel aquaculture. However, it is difficult to trace the pelagic pathways of mussels due to their minuscule size, high abundance and interactions with the ocean environment. Microchemical methods can be used to infer locations of mussels during their pelagic journey by matching the trace metals sequentially deposited during the formation of the shells of the early stages of mussels to the chemical composition of the seawater in which the shell developed. This method was used to reconstruct the pelagic pathways for recently-settled green-lipped mussels, Perna canaliculus, sampled for two sequential 5-week periods, back to their natal locations for 22 sites covering a ∼110 km long coastal embayment in northern New Zealand. The majority (∼61 %) of the mussel settlers arrived at a specific part (∼25 km) of the coastline, and most of the settlers (∼84 %) were >0.8 mm in shell length, indicating they were mostly juveniles undergoing secondary pelagic dispersal. Sequential microchemical analyses of the shells indicated that these juvenile mussels mainly (∼82 %) originated as larvae from a small length of the coastline (i.e., ∼12 km) with their larvae settling in the vicinity, prior to their subsequent pelagic dispersal as juveniles throughout the embayment. The mean net distance travelled by all sampled mussels was about 3-8 km higher than the mean dispersal distance to reach their primary settlement site (∼20 km) in these two sampling periods, suggesting that secondary pelagic migration by plantigrades extends the overall dispersal range in this species by about 15-41 %. These novel results allowed us to separate primary and secondary pelagic dispersal phases, and highlight the significance of the pelagic dispersal of juveniles subsequent to the initial dispersal of mussel larvae.
Download full-text PDF |
Source |
|---|---|
| http://dx.doi.org/10.1016/j.scitotenv.2025.178940 | DOI Listing |
Publication Analysis
Top Keywords
Similar Publications
Population panmixia of the pelagic shrimp Lucensosergia lucens between Japanese and Taiwanese waters in the western North Pacific.
Sci Rep
March 2025
School of Marine Science and Technology, Tokai University, Shizuoka, Japan.
The pelagic shrimp Lucensosergia lucens is a commercially important species in Japan and Taiwan; however, a recent significant decline in L. lucens catch has been reported in Suruga Bay, Japan. In the present study, multiple molecular approaches were used to understand the population structure of L.
View Article and Find Full Text PDFDetermining the significance of pelagic versus juvenile dispersal of larvae in a coastal mussel.
Sci Total Environ
February 2025
Institute of Marine Science, The University of Auckland, Auckland, New Zealand; School of Biological Sciences, The University of Auckland, Auckland, New Zealand.
Patterns of pelagic dispersal of the early stages of wild mussels are important ecologically for maintaining population connectivity, and economically for supplying wild seed for mussel aquaculture. However, it is difficult to trace the pelagic pathways of mussels due to their minuscule size, high abundance and interactions with the ocean environment. Microchemical methods can be used to infer locations of mussels during their pelagic journey by matching the trace metals sequentially deposited during the formation of the shells of the early stages of mussels to the chemical composition of the seawater in which the shell developed.
View Article and Find Full Text PDFBuoyant polyethylene rope fragments might be vehicles of migration for larval mussels (Mytilus coruscus).
J Hazard Mater
February 2025
National Engineering Research Center for Marine Aquaculture, Zhejiang Ocean University, Zhoushan 316022, China.
The widespread use of plastics has led to ecosystem risks, which serve as ideal substrates for biofouling in aqueous environments, spreading ecological hazards. In this study, we established a simulation system incorporating Mytilus coruscus larvae and buoyant plastic rope fragments, using polyethylene rope fragments as substrates to assess the attachment behavior of the larvae and the duration of their buoyancy, in order to investigate the potential role of buoyant plastic rope fragments in facilitating larval dispersal and evaluate their ecological implications. The results demonstrated that larvae successfully attached to plastic rope fragments, showing a preference for the rougher ends, and extended their pelagic phase by up to 25 days.
View Article and Find Full Text PDFMutualistic relationships such as the one between crabs and coral colonies are common in reef organisms and play a crucial role in coral resilience and resistance to climate-induced stressor, yet very little is known about the taxonomic diversity and evolutionary history of the species involved. Despite being essential actors of coral reefs and threatened by the ongoing degradation of their habitat, little genetic information is available for crabs, including the exact number of species and their relationships. To overcome this limitation, we sampled Natural History Collections, an important and underutilized source of genomic data.
View Article and Find Full Text PDFSeagrass-rafted large benthic foraminifera transported into the deep Red Sea.
Sci Rep
February 2025
ISMAR-CNR, Bologna, Italy.
Large shallow-marine foraminifera tests occur in deep-sea carbonate sediments of the northern Red Sea as a minor but recurring component among the remains of otherwise pelagic and deep-marine benthic biogenic assemblages. In this study of sediments recovered along the northern shore of Saudi Arabia, the symbiont-bearing taxa Sorites variabilis, S. orbiculus, Amphisorus hemprichii, Amphistegina lobifera, A.
View Article and Find Full Text PDFWant AI Summaries of new PubMed Abstracts delivered to your In-box?
Enter search terms and have AI summaries delivered each week - change queries or unsubscribe any time!