Elizabeth Gosling

• PhD; DSc
• Lecturer at Galway-Mayo Institute of Technology

Global and local distribution patterns of representative marine mussel species are presented in this chapter. The major physical factors that influence marine mussel distribution and abundance are temperature, salinity and hydrographic factors, while local distribution is also influenced by temperature and salinity in addition to wave force and cha...

Mussel growth is usually described in terms of an increase in the maximum distance between the anterior and posterior margins of the shell. Growth rate can be measured either as how the size of the whole organism is related to age (absolute growth) or as how the rate of growth of one size variable is related to that of another (allometric growth)....

This chapter describes the role of mussels in transmission of disease to humans under the following headings: bacterial infections, viral infections, parasites, biotoxins and industrial pollutants. Methods of bacterial, viral and toxin detection, decontamination procedures, monitoring and food safety measures are also covered. To protect public hea...

This chapter describes types and levels of contaminants released into the marine environment due to anthropogenic activities. The main sources of contamination and physico‐chemical properties of these substances are covered, as well as the common analytical methods used for their detection and quantification. The following are the main contaminants...

In this chapter, the approach is to use much studied representative species of marine mussels to describe the internal and external general morphology and functions of the shell, mantle, foot, gonad, heart, kidney and nervous tissue. Mussel shells, for example, are used as potential bioarchives of proxies for physiochemical changes in marine habita...

This chapter describes the major disease‐causing agents of marine mussels – viruses, bacteria, fungi, protistans, sponges, parasitic helminths, crustaceans and annelids – as well as the cellular and humoral defence mechanisms utilised by bivalves to combat disease. A range of assays based on haemocyte counts, phagocytosis, degradative enzyme levels...

Bivalves have an open circulatory system, with haemolymph flowing through a network of vessels in all tissues. These join to form veins that empty into extensive spaces called sinuses. Haemolymph plays a number of important roles in bivalve physiology, which include gas exchange, osmoregulation, nutrient distribution and waste elimination, with hae...

This chapter deals with reproduction, larval development, settlement, metamorphosis, post‐larval dispersal, larval identification and abundance estimates. Included are sex identification and determination, annual cycles in a wide range of marine mussel species, exogenous and endogenous regulation of gametogenesis and spawning, annual storage cycles...

This chapter covers the different methods used to culture mussels and the phases of the culture process: seeding, grow‐out and harvesting. The different culture methods described are longlines, rafts, bouchots, pole/stakes, offshore and bottom culture; the method used is determined by the nature of the culture site. Topics also covered in some deta...

The phylum Mollusca consists of ~130 000 named extant species. Research has indicated that the phylum had a Precambrian origin with rapid divergence occurring in the Cambrian era some 540–560 million years ago. Using morphological and molecular data, the phylogeny and evolution of the class Bivalvia and the family Mytilidae (mussels) have been prop...

This chapter focuses on feeding, digestion and absorption in mussels, the various mechanisms they employ to control the quantity and quality of their diet and how their mode of feeding can influence marine ecosystem processes. Mussels feed by using an inhalant aperture to filter small organic particles, such as bacteria, algae and detritus, out of...

This chapter deals with protein and DNA molecular markers and their use in quantifying inter‐ and intraspecific genetic variability in populations; invasive species, quantitative genetics and the various types of breeding schemes used in selective breeding of mussels; and functional genomics: transcriptomics, proteomics and metabolomics. A range of...

At a proximal level, the physiological impacts of global climate change on ectothermic organisms are manifest as changes in body temperatures. Especially for plants and animals exposed to direct solar radiation, body temperatures can be substantially different from air temperatures. We deployed biomimetic sensors that approximate the thermal charac...

Marine Bivalve Molluscs is a comprehensive and thoroughly updated second edition of Bivalve Molluscs, covering all major aspects of this important class of invertebrates. As well as being an important class biologically and ecologically, many of the bivalves are fished and cultured commercially (e.g. mussels, oysters, scallops and clams) in a multi...

This chapter discusses the following bivalve species that have been chosen: for Mussels the genus Mytilus, for oysters Ostrea and Crassostrea, for scallops Pecten maximus and for clams Mercenaria mercenaria. The general morphology and functions of the shell, mantle, foot, gill, alimentary canal, gonad, heart, kidney and nervous tissue are described...

The reproductive system in bivalves is simple. The paired gonads are made up of branching tubules, and gametes are budded off the epithelial lining of the tubules. The tubules unite to form ducts that lead into larger ducts, which eventually terminate in a short gonoduct. Fertilization is external and the gametes are shed through the exhalant openi...

Growth in bivalves is usually described in terms of an increase in some dimension of the shell valves. Growth rate can be measured in one of two ways: either the size of the whole organism is related to age (absolute growth), or the rate of growth of one size variable is related to that of another variable (allometric growth). Allometric changes in...

Towards the end of the nineteenth century reliable techniques for culturing bivalves were developed. This chapter discusses basic aspects of bivalve culture and focuses on a number of key species for detailed treatment. In bivalve culture the supply of seed, also known as spat, is a critical element. Seed may be produced by wild or cultured stocks...

In this chapter the effects of temperature and salinity, the two most important physical factors governing the distribution of marine organisms, are described in detail. Their effects on other aspects of bivalve biology, such as feeding, reproduction, growth, and respiration and osmotic regulation, are covered. Geographical distribution is also gov...

The phylum Mollusca is one of the largest, most diverse and important groups in the animal kingdom, with at least 50000 described species and probably as many as 200000 living species, most of which are marine. Molluscs are soft-bodied animals but most have a hard protective shell. Eight classes of molluscs are recognized, mostly based on cladistic...

The economic importance of bivalves calls for efficient approaches to the conservation and management of wild populations. Much of the methodology developed for finfish stock assessment and management has been applied to bivalve molluscs, although much is inappropriate. This chapter deals with the main elements of bivalve population dynamics: abund...

This chapter explains feeding, digestion and absorption in suspension-feeding bivalves, and the various mechanisms that they employ to control the quantity and quality of their diet. The vast majority of bivalves use the gills for feeding and these have become greatly enlarged to deal with their secondary derived role. The two processes, clearance...

By virtue of their feeding habit, bivalves concentrate and accumulate material from the environment. Generally speaking, the bivalves are not themselves affected by the microorganisms or toxins, merely serving to concentrate and passively transport the etiological agent. In this chapter on public health the role of bivalves in transmission of disea...

The haemolymph plays an important role in gas exchange, osmoregulation, nutrient distribution, elimination of wastes and internal defence. The haemolymph contains cells called haemocytes that float in a colourless plasma. Most bivalves lack circulating respiratory pigments, although haemocyanin is found in some protobranchs, and haemoglobin has bee...

The major disease-causing agents of marine bivalves are viruses, bacteria, fungi, protozoans, helminths and parasitic crustaceans. This chapter describes the key bivalve pathogens within each group. Most bacterial diseases of bivalves are caused by a range of Vibrio species. One of these diseases, brown ring disease (BRD), in clams is described. Th...

The amount of variation for genetic manipulation is greater in fish and bivalves than in domesticated livestock, which are considerably improved by a long history of artificial selection. It should be pointed out at this stage that because of their higher market value genetic advances in aquaculture are much further ahead for fish than for bivalve...

Stock heterogeneity was investigated in albacore tuna (Thunnus alalunga, Bonnaterre 1788), a commercially important species in the North Atlantic Ocean and Mediterranean Sea. Twelve polymorphic microsatellite loci were examined in 581 albacore tuna from nine locations, four in the north-east Atlantic Ocean (NEA), three in the Mediterranean Sea (MED...

The genetic constitution of mussels (Mytilus spp.) was studied by means of three nuclear (Me 15/16, EF-bis, ITS) and one mtDNA (ND2-COIII) marker on a large European scale. In addition to a sharp cline between Atlantic and Mediterranean M. galloprovincialis, we observed a clear genetic distinction between the Black Sea and Mediterranean populations...

Trace element analysis or “elemental fingerprinting” is widely used in stock structure analyses. Postmortem contamination of bony structures can confound the results of microconstituent studies or introduce an additional source of noise to the data, thus reducing the ability of the technique to detect real variation in trace element concentrations....

Mussel populations on the Irish Atlantic coast comprise an interbreeding mixture of the blue mussel, Mytilus edulis (L.) and the Mediterranean mussel, Mytilus galloprovincialis (Lmk.). The occurrence of hybrid genotypes varies between sites but can be as high 80%. This study compares the reproductive cycle of M. edulis, M. galloprovincialis and the...

Many species of marine fish are typified by large population sizes, strong migratory behavior, high fecundity, and pelagic eggs and larvae that are passively transported by ocean currents, all features that tend to increase gene flow, and hence reduce genetic partitioning, among localized populations. The plaice, Pleuronectes platessa, is a commerc...

The blue mussel, Mytilus edulis, and the Mediterranean mussel, Mytilus galloprovincialis, occur widely over much of northern Europe, and wherever they are sympatric they hybridize. The hybrid zone is large, ranging from western France to the north of Scotland, and is spatially complex, containing a mixture of pure, hybrid and introgressed individua...

1. The recent arrival and explosive spread of the zebra mussel, Dreissena polymorpha (Pallas), in Ireland provided a rare opportunity to study the population genetics of an invasive species. 2. Eight polymorphic allozyme loci (ACO-1, ACO-2, EST-D, GPI, IDH-2, MDH, OPDH and PGM) were used to investigate genetic diversity and population structure in...

Was, A., Gosling, E., McCrann, K., and Mork, J. 2008. Evidence for population structuring of blue whiting (Micromesistius poutassou) in the Northeast Atlantic. – ICES Journal of Marine Science, 65: 216–225. Many marine fish species are characterized by large population sizes, strong migratory behaviour, high fecundity, and pelagic eggs and larvae t...

Mussels (Mytilus sp.) from Sanriku Bay, NE Honshu, Japan were examined using morphological characters and electrophoretically detectable enzyme polymorphisms. Using both sets of criteria, the mussels were identified as M. galloprovincialis, the mediterranean mussel. This confirms an earlier opinion, which was based on morphological criteria alone,...

Age estimates for albacore tuna are derived using a number of methods including the enumeration of growth increments in spines, scales and otoliths. Inconsistencies in interpretation between structures and between laboratories may introduce error into the age-data available for stock assessment. A comparative age estimation exercise was carried out...

Bivalves are aquatic animals enclosed in 2 rigid shells that are held together by a hinge ligament. Features of the shell valves are important in taxonomy, and museums hold global collections of catalogued fossil, historical and contemporary specimens. Museum collections of plants and animals are routinely used for the retrieval of DNA, but to date...

In Ireland, mussels on exposed rocky shores constitute an interbreeding mixture of two forms of mussels, the blue mussel, Mytilus edulis, and the Mediterranean mussel, M. galloprovincialis. Results from an Irish study in the 1980s, using partially diagnostic allozyme markers, indicated that mussels higher up the shore were more galloprovincialis-li...

The zebra mussel, Dreissena polymorpha (Pallas), a bivalve species originally native to the Black and Caspian seas, has invaded Ireland in the last decade. Five microsatellite loci were used to investigate genetic diversity and population structure in 10 populations across Europe (Ireland, UK, the Netherlands and Romania) and the Great Lakes (Lake...

The intertidal snail Littorina saxatilis displays a range of shell morphologies associated with a variety of habitats. Since morphology has an environmental and genetic basis, shell-based taxonomy may not accurately reflect genetic relationships. We explored genetic structure among adjacent populations of L. saxatilis (the robust open-shore type),...

Snails of the Littorina saxatilis species complex are ubiquitous and important members of hard shore intertidal communities in the North Atlantic. The complex includes L. arcana, L. compressa and L. saxatilis. We investigated species and population structure among these species from six locations in Ireland and Britain using a nonradioactive single...

Littorina saxatilis is a ubiquitous snail of intertidal habitats in the North Atlantic. Shell type in littorinids is extremely polymorphic and defined by habitat. Taxonomy based upon shell type has been revised in the light of anatomic and genetic information, but uncertainties remain. In this study, the population structure of L. saxatilis and L....

Eight samples of Littorina tenebrosa and L. saxatilis (Mollusca: Gastropoda) from Ireland and Britain, including pairs of each form from two locations in Ireland, were screened for genetic variation at 12 polymorphic enzyme loci using starch gel electrophoresis. Levels of polymorphism and heterozygosity were similar in L. tenebrosa and L. saxatilis...

Littorina tenebrosa is a small fragile-shelled periwinkle which lives on permanently submerged algae in coastal lagoons and non-tidal brackish pools. This periwinkle is a member of the rough periwinkle group which also comprises Littorina saxatilis, L. arcana, L. compressa and L. neglecta and is most closely related to L. saxatilis although its exa...

Starch-gel electrophoretic techniques were applied to the investigation of molecular genetic variation in populations of the rough periwinkle Littorina saxatilis. The investigation comprised two phases: (a) technique development to resolve as many as possible of the allozyme loci reported in the literature as having been screened in the genus Litto...

Developmental stability as measured by fluctuating asymmetry is reported to be greater in interspecific salmonid hybrids than in the pure parental species. We have examined FA in Atlantic salmon, Salmo salar and European trout, Salmo trutta and in hybrids between them. FA is significantly greater in meristic traits (number of gill rakers, pectoral...

The abalone, Haliotis tuberculata, is a gastropod mollusc of commercial importance in Europe with considerable potential for aquaculture. A wild population of H. tuberculata from Guernsey, Channel Islands was compared to two hatchery populations; one an F1 stock produced by a hatchery in Guernsey, the other an F3 stock cultured at the Shellfish Res...

Atlantic salmon, Salmo salar L., brown trout, S. trutta L. and their hybrids are normally identified in the field by empirical differences in maxilla length, thickness of the caudal peduncle, degree of forking of the tail and overall body conformation. This study quantifies these characters and analyses their variations in electrophoretically ident...

In recent years the induction of triploidy in a variety of marine organisms has attracted considerable attention in the aquaculture industry. To date chemical treatment with cytochalasin B has been the preferred method of induction in bivalve molluscs. In this study thermal shock was used as the method of induction. Fertilised eggs were subjected t...

In Ireland, mussels on exposed rocky shores constitute an interbreeding mixture of two forms of mussels,Mytilus edulis L. and the Mediterranean musselM. galloprovincialis Lmk. This paper presents an in-depth analysis, carried out between October 1984 and December 1986, of genetic variability at two partially diagnostic loci,Odh andEst-D, in two exp...

The marine mussel, Mytilus edulis , is a widely distributed bivalve, especially abundant on wave washed exposed rocky shores (Lewis, 1964). Investigations on the reproductive and settlement cycles of M. edulis in Irish waters have concentrated to date on sheltered shore populations (Wilson & Seed, 1974; Seed & Brown, 1975; Rodhouse et al ., 1984; M...

Mussels from a natural population of Mytilus edulis, which had settled onto ropes, were collected from Killary Harbour on the west coast of Ireland in November 1986 when they were approximately 5 mo old. Shell lengths in the cohort ranged between 13 and 33 mm and did not differ significantly from a normal distribution. Heterozygosity at five polymo...

Two hundred Chlamys varia (L.) from Roskeeda Bay (W. Ireland) and Lough Hyne (S. Ireland) were collected and labelled in December 1979. One hundred individuals from the L. Hyne sample were then transferred to Roskeeda; similarly, 100 Roskeeda scallops were transferred to L. Hyne. At each site 100 indigenous scallops were held as controls. After a p...

In a macrogeographic survey, the population genetic structure of mussels from various regions of the Baltic Sea, a large semi-enclosed brackish-water basin, was examined with reference to Mytilus edulis and M. galloprovincialis samples from the North Sea, Irish coast and southern Portugal. Electrophoretically detectable variation was analysed at 6...

Starch gel electrophoresis was used to analyse genetic variability at the Pgi, Lap-1, Lap-2 and Est-D loci in different cohorts of Mytilus edulis (L.) settling at different times during a single settlement season. Samples were collected on ropes, which were placed in the sea for very short periods between May and August 1981 and which were then rem...

Incorporation of 3H-labelled glucose and 3H-labelled N-acetylglucosamine (NAGA) — both precursors to chitin —into the cuticle of Rhithropanopeus harrisii (Gould) larvae (Crustacea: Brachyura) has been examined at different stages of the moult cycle in control larvae as well as in larvae treated with the insect growth regulator diflubenzuron (Dimili...

Research into the history of oyster transplantations among Irish beds revealed a great deal of mixing of native stocks. A truly native oyster no longer exists. Starch gel electrophoresis was used to test for genetic differences between these stocks. The resulting allozymic patterns indicate that some differences do exist, but they are small and are...

From the middle of the thirteenth century until 1438 the kingdom of Sukhothai was the major political unit in what would later become central Siam, or Thailand . The city of Sukhothai, generally considered Thailand 's first "capital," was abandoned at some uncertain date. However, its ruins evidence a once-flourishing society in which many of moder...

Genetic variability was analysed at 19 enzyme loci in hatchery-produced Crassostrea gigas. These oysters were the descendants of approximately 150 adult C. gigas imported from British Columbia into the Shellfish Culture Unit, Conwy (N. Wales) between 1965 and 1972; they form the basis of the breeding populations used by commercial hatcheries in Bri...

This chapter discusses the results of experimental investigations on skin digestion in bivalve mollusks and its relation to amino acid absorption from seawater. Recent investigations have demonstrated that several marine invertebrates including bivalve mollusks have a capacity for digestion of material on their body surfaces. It has been suggested...

When closely related species overlap geographically, a change of character state may occur in one species which is directly attributable to the presence in the same environment of an ecologically similar species1,2. Most reports of this phenomenon-called character displacement-have been concerned with divergence, rather than convergence, in morphol...

ELECTROPHORESIS detects only about one third of the genetic variation present in a natural population, despite its wide application1. A combination of electrophoretic and heat denaturation techniques has revealed considerable molecular variation within single electrophoretic classes of enzymes. For example, Bernstein et al.2 have found 1.74 more al...

Mussels produce pelagic larvae which may be dispersed over great distances from their point of origin. After metamorphosis they attach to a firm substrate and from then on lead an essentially sessile existence. The extended dispersal stage in the larvae suggests an important role for interpopulation migration. On the other hand, during sedentary ad...

Table 1 presents the results for all sheep studied. Breed differences are significant and the high frequency of the Hb-A alíele in the Finn ewes is consistent with the result of Evans et al (1958a). The frequency of the Hb-A alíele is extremely low in the Galway breed and all pedigree-registered animals (58) were homozygous. Leicester-type sheep ar...

This paper reports on the first 2 years of data collected to study the ecology of Phytophthora ramorum in Ireland. Since spring 2005, sampling has been carried out for the presence of the pathogen in soil and watercourses from 11 susceptible forest sites in Ireland, using a rapid DNA method in conjunction with morphological identification methods....