The entangled multi-level responses of Mytilus galloprovincialis (Lamarck, 1819) to environmental stressors as detected by an integrated approach.

ABSTRACT

Anthropogenic pressure adds up and interacts with the effects of climate change with a varying magnitude and potential changes depend on species' Life History (LH) traits, local environmental conditions and co-occurrence of several stressors. Stressors exert negative effects on marine biota when acting as a single factor, but the effects may be amplified when more than one stressor work in combination, producing interacting effects on biodiversity and ecosystem functioning. The impairment of individual functional traits (FT) leads to strong rebounds on LH traits and this may have ecological consequences. No studies actually relate FT and antioxidant enzymes to multiple environmental stressors. In this paper we investigate the effects of food concentration, temperature and hypoxia on metabolic traits as expressed by a proxy such as respiration rate and feeding behaviour and on antioxidant enzymes (Catalase, Superoxide dismutase, Glutathione S-Transferase, Glutathione peroxidase) for the bivalve Mytilus galloprovincialis. Mussels were exposed to three temperatures (12, 20 and 28 °C) under normoxic (8 mg O2 l-1) and hypoxic (~2 mg O2 l-1) conditions, with varying food concentrations ranging from 0.9 to 3.5 µg of chlorophyll l-1. The results show that FTs and antioxidant enzymes were affected by temperature, hypoxia and food availability, and outcome allowed us to emphasise that a multi-scalar integrated approach is suitable to detect and monitor effects of anthropogenic disturbance on ecosystem functioning.