| Summary: | Anthropogenic CO2 emissions are leading to a gradual decrease in ocean pH and changes in seawater carbonate chemistry, a process known as ocean acidification (OA). Such changes in oceanic environmental conditions will have negative consequences for marine life and organisms producing calcium carbonate (CaCO3) structures are amongst the most vulnerable due to the additional costs associated with calcification and maintenance of calcified structures under more acidic conditions. As calcifying animals of particular commercial and ecological relevance, bivalve molluscs have frequently been the object of OA research. In this thesis, responses to changes in seawater acidity in commercially important bivalve species were investigated with the aim of understanding their adaptation potential to OA. As the main focus was on blue mussels, the first part of the thesis provided an introduction to blue musselspecies complex in Europe which is characterized by the three species Mytilus edulis, M. galloprovincialis and M. trossulus. An analysis of potential consequences of interspecies hybridization for the aquaculture industry, especially in the context of changing environmental conditions, was provided. Possible positive and negative effects of hybridization were identified, the complexity of the blue mussel-species complex was highlighted and the implications of hybridization for adaptation were discussed. In the following section of the thesis, responses of Mytilus edulis larvae from a Swedish west coast population to elevated seawater acidity were investigated. By exposing larvae to a wide range of seawater acidity, the physiological tolerance threshold for normal shell development was identified and corresponded to pHT (pH on the total scale) ~ 7.8 which approximates the lower extremes of the local pH range naturally experienced by the larvae. This suggests that these mussels are well adapted to their local environment characterized by considerable fluctuations in seawater pH. Additionally, this result allowed selecting ...
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