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    Climate change alters shellfish reef communities: A temperate mesocosm experiment
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    1. MadisonWalters2028 31 Aug 2025
      This study has found that T. hirsuta may be displaced by M. galloprovincialis in a future ocean, causing a shift in the biogenic habitat of the Australian shores. Such a shift in habitat may affect the infauna; future conditions may cause infauna to prefer specific mussel habitats (either T. hirsuta or M. galloprovincialis) and lead to an overall decline in infaunal molluscs.

      What would happen if the restoration projects were focused on planting native mussels and the invasive species still continue to take over, should the project focus shift to the invasive species, or stay on the native species? Would it be more ethical to let the new invasive species take over and form new habitats because they might survive climate change better than the native species?

    2. MadisonWalters2028 31 Aug 2025
      Polychaetes generally had a positive response to climate change scenarios. Warming and elevated pCO2 interacted to increase the number of species of polychaetes in the elevated pCO2 treatment at ambient temperature (Fig. 4; ANOVA Temp × CO2, F1,32 = 11.03, P < 0.02, Supplementary Table 4). Under warming, there were fewer polychaete species recruiting to T. hirsuta compared with that observed at ambient temperature, but there was no effect of warming on the number of polychaete species that recruited to M. galloprovincialis (Supplementary Table 4). When T. hirsuta and M. galloprovincialis were present in the same mesocosms, there were significantly more polychaetes under ambient temperature than under warming (Fig. 4; ANOVA Temp × Presence, F1,32 = 4.66, P < 0.05; Species × Presence, F1,32 = 4.66, P < 0.05, Supplementary Table 4). There were no significant effects of any treatments on the number of species, the number of individuals of Crustacea and the number of species of Mollusca (Fig. 4; Supplementary Table 4). Molluscs were negatively affected by elevated pCO2 but unaffected by warming (Fig. 4).

      These results indicate that the worms would benefit from climate change, but the mollusks would be harmed. Mollusks play a vital role in many ecosystems through filtering water, recycling nutrients, and building the strong shells that many other organisms inhabit. If this organism were to decline would the loss create more long-term issues, other than the worm population being increased. What would this due to the food web? Would this change how many reefs or shorelines are built?

    3. MadisonWalters2028 31 Aug 2025
      This study has shown that the invasive M. galloprovincialis was more tolerant of elevated pCO2 compared with the native T. hirsuta. We have also shown that the two mussel species possess unique infaunal communities, which are also altered by climate change conditions.

      The authors make an interesting point here that the invasive species of mussels are more tolerant than the native species to climate change. With that being said, from a scientific standpoint, should scientists be worried about the invasive species replacing the native ones, and if they are concerned about this what should conservationists or scientists do to stop this?

    4. MadisonWalters2028 31 Aug 2025
      Species do not exist in isolation but rather in communities where they interact. These interactions can be broadly grouped into interactions that reduce the overall abundance of species i.e. “negative interactions” (e.g. competition and predation) or interactions that increase their abundance i.e. “positive interactions” (Bertness et al., 1999).

      Here the authors are suggesting the idea that species do not live alone, instead they are part of much bigger communities. How might potential climate change affect these interactions? Would they make some of these interactions stronger or weaker than others? Would this benefit one species and impair another? And what does this mean for those invasive species compared to native species?

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    sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S0025326X21011474