The influence of changing salinity and other seasonal factors on farmed oysters

The changing coastal and estuary environment Marine bivalve molluscs populate shallow coastal waters and estuaries, where phytoplankton for feeding is most abundant (Dame 2012). In coastal waters and estuaries bivalves, such as oysters, have adapted to changing environmental conditions, including exposure to air, seasonal changes in ambient air and water temperature and variations in salinity (Dame 2012). Temperature and salinity are two of the dominant environmental factors which influence bivalve mollusc physiology (Shumway 1996; Kim and Powell 2009; Dame 2012). There are many additional seasonal changes, closely related to temperature and salinity, which also affect oyster physiology, including nutrient abundance, tidal patterns (Cheney et al. 2000), suspended sediment (Ropert et al. 2008) and oxygen saturation in the water (Shumway and Koehn 1982).