Resilience of Mediterranean Mussels to Hydrodynamic Stresses: Insights for Climate Change Adaptation

The increasing frequency and magnitude of extreme weather events across the Earth's surface results in increasing pressure for living organisms and their habitats, including those in aquatic ecosystems. The main focus of this study is on the resilience of Mediterranean mussels (Mytilus galloprovincialis) against pronounced hydrodynamic stresses that may be experienced more frequently compared to the past. These mussels can be typically found in Mediterranean coasts and estuaries (such as in Greece, Spain, Italy, and Portugal), and they are also extensively farmed in the open sea using aquaculture practices. As such, they are of particular interest given their economic significance for Mediterranean countries, as well as their ecological role (offering significant ecosystem services as "ecosystem engineers", such as coastal protection).
The hydrodynamic stress of Mediterranean mussels is herein assessed indirectly using appropriately designed wave-flume experiments and analyzing video observations of the effects of wave motions of different characteristics on the Mediterranean mussels. For these experiments we embed specialised sensors to these mussels so they can record even minute displacements and changes in their orientation [1, 2]. Specifically, small, medium, and large mussels are exposed to two different configurations (similar to earlier studies [3]) on the surface of an artificial seabed, over which different wave fields are traversing. The movement of individual mussels was visually evaluated under varying wave intensities, transitioning from high to low energy and vice versa. These observations aim to determine the conditions and orientations under which these organisms drift relative to the wave flow direction or remain practically undisturbed. In the context of climate change and its impact on marine environments, this study may provide valuable insights into efforts to protect endangered marine species and enhance strategies for safeguarding aquaculture crops against damage caused by storms or significant wave fields.

References
[1] AlObaidi, K., & Valyrakis, M. (2021). Linking the explicit probability of entrainment of instrumented particles to flow hydrodynamics. Earth Surface Processes and Landforms, 46(12), 2448-2465.
[2] Al-Obaidi, K., & Valyrakis, M. (2021). A sensory instrumented particle for environmental monitoring applications: Development and calibration. IEEE Sensors Journal, 21(8), 10153-10166.
[3] Curley, E.A.M., Valyrakis, M., Thomas, R., Adams, C.E., & Stephen, A. (2021). Smart sensors to predict entrainment of freshwater mussels: A new tool in freshwater habitat assessment. Science of the Total Environment, 787, 147586.