Marine heatwaves have minimal influence on the quality of adult Sydney rock oyster flesh

Endurance E Ewere; Nedeljka Rosic; Philipp E Bayer; Ajit Ngangbam; David Edwards; Brendan P Kelaher; Lea T Mamo; Kirsten Benkendorff

doi:10.1016/j.scitotenv.2021.148846

Marine heatwaves have minimal influence on the quality of adult Sydney rock oyster flesh

Sci Total Environ. 2021 Nov 15:795:148846. doi: 10.1016/j.scitotenv.2021.148846. Epub 2021 Jul 2.

Authors

Endurance E Ewere¹, Nedeljka Rosic², Philipp E Bayer³, Ajit Ngangbam⁴, David Edwards³, Brendan P Kelaher⁵, Lea T Mamo⁶, Kirsten Benkendorff⁷

Affiliations

¹ Marine Ecology Research Centre, Faculty of Science and Engineering, Southern Cross University, PO Box 157, Lismore, NSW 2480, Australia; Department of Animal and Environmental Biology, Faculty of Life Sciences, University of Benin, PMB 1154, Benin City, Nigeria.
² Marine Ecology Research Centre, Faculty of Science and Engineering, Southern Cross University, PO Box 157, Lismore, NSW 2480, Australia; Faculty of Health, Southern Cross University, Gold Coast, Qld 4225, Australia.
³ School of Biological Sciences and Institute of Agriculture, University of Western Australia, Perth, Western Australia, Australia.
⁴ Marine Ecology Research Centre, Faculty of Science and Engineering, Southern Cross University, PO Box 157, Lismore, NSW 2480, Australia.
⁵ Marine Ecology Research Centre, Faculty of Science and Engineering, Southern Cross University, PO Box 157, Lismore, NSW 2480, Australia; National Marine Science Centre, Southern Cross University, Coffs Harbour, NSW 2450, Australia.
⁶ National Marine Science Centre, Southern Cross University, Coffs Harbour, NSW 2450, Australia.
⁷ Marine Ecology Research Centre, Faculty of Science and Engineering, Southern Cross University, PO Box 157, Lismore, NSW 2480, Australia; National Marine Science Centre, Southern Cross University, Coffs Harbour, NSW 2450, Australia. Electronic address: kirsten.benkendorff@scu.edu.au.

PMID: 34247068
DOI: 10.1016/j.scitotenv.2021.148846

Abstract

Marine heatwaves (MHWs) are impacting marine biodiversity, including fisheries and aquaculture. However, it is largely unknown which species will be able to endure MHWs and at what price. Here, we applied elevated temperature (2 °C above ambient) and two different heatwave scenarios to adults of the economically important Sydney rock oyster (SRO, Saccostrea glomerata), and evaluated the impact on nutritional properties, gene expression profiles and immune health indicators. We found that elevated temperature (23 °C) and a variable heatwave (VHW) during winter caused some significant differences in the micronutrient and trace elements levels in oyster flesh. There was an increase of lead under VHW and a decrease in chromium, barium and aluminium under elevated temperature. Conversely, gene expression profiles and other physiological parameters, including flesh protein, fatty acid profiles and hemocyte numbers, were not affected by MHWs. These results indicate that adult SRO are reasonably resilient, and should continue to provide high-quality seafood, under near-future ocean warming and moderate heatwave scenarios.

Keywords: Bivalve; Immune health; Mesocosm; Ocean warming; Seafood quality; Transcriptomics.

MeSH terms

Animals
Aquaculture
Fisheries
Ostreidae*
Seasons