Seawater carbonate chemistry and load at failure, thread extensibility, and total thread counts of the blue mussel (Mytilus edulis)

• Main Authors: Dickey, Grant, Preziosi, Brian M, Clark, Charles T, Bowden, Timothy J
• Format: Dataset
• Language: English
• Published: PANGAEA 2018
• Subjects: Alkalinity; total; standard deviation; Animalia; Aragonite saturation state; Benthic animals; Benthos; Bicarbonate ion; Breaking load; Byssus thread number; Calcite saturation state; Calculated using CO2SYS; Calculated using seacarb after Nisumaa et al. (2010); Carbon; inorganic; dissolved; Carbonate ion; Carbonate system computation flag; Carbon dioxide; Coast and continental shelf; Containers and aquaria (20-1000 L or < 1 m**2); Extensibility; Fugacity of carbon dioxide (water) at sea surface temperature (wet air); Growth/Morphology; Identification; Laboratory experiment; Length; Location; Mass; Mollusca; Mussel condition index; Mytilus edulis; North Atlantic; OA-ICC; Ocean Acidification International Coordination Centre; Other studied parameter or process; Oxygen; Partial pressure of carbon dioxide (water) at sea surface temperature (wet air); pH; Pressure; air bubble; Registration number of species; Salinity; Shell length; Single species; Ocean acidification
• Online Access: https://doi.pangaea.de/10.1594/PANGAEA.919526; https://doi.org/10.1594/PANGAEA.919526

Blue mussel (Mytilus edulis) produce byssal threads to anchor themselves to the substrate. These threads are always exposed to the surrounding environmental conditions. Understanding how environmental pH affects these threads is crucial in understanding how climate change can affect mussels. This work examines three factors (load at failure, thread extensibility, and total thread counts) that indicate the performance of byssal threads as well as condition index to assess impacts on the physiological condition of mussels held in artificial seawater acidified by the addition of CO2. There was no significant variation between the control (786 μatm CO2 / 7.98 pH/ 2805 μmol/kg total alkalinity) and acidified (2555 μatm CO2 / 7.47 pH/ 2650 μmol/kg total alkalinity) treatment groups in any of these factors. The results of this study suggest that ocean acidification by CO2 addition has no significant effect on the quality and performance of threads produced by M. edulis.