Abstract

Changes in environmental conditions can be particularly stressful for marine biota. However, marine organisms possess a variety of biological mechanisms (e.g., expression of stress proteins, down or up metabolic regulation, among others) that enable them to adapt to such conditions. This will ultimately determine their resilience and adaptive capacity to the natural environmental fluctuations occurring in their habitats, but also to future climate-driven shifts. In Chile, the scallop Argopecten purpuratus inhabits regions under permanent upwelling conditions causing, at different temporal and spatial scales, cooling, low pH and hypoxic conditions of diverse magnitude. In one-year field experiment, we observed that A. purpuratus was, in some occasions, adversely affected by intense upwelling events during the spring season, when the most intense upwelling events were observed, and thus the lowest temperatures, pH and oxygen levels were registered. These effects were more evident in some shell properties, such as the shell organic matrix, a key component of the biomineralization process. Also, no impacts or positive responses (i.e., up-regulation) were observed on parameters associated to their nutritional status (i.e., carbohydrate and protein muscle content), and periostracum thickness suggesting the presence of physiological trade-offs, but also adaptive mechanisms serving to cope with stressful environmental conditions. Ultimately, our findings also raise concerns about the potential consequences of intensified upwelling due to climate change, particularly for the aquaculture sector that relies on this species, since the majority of impacts were observed in individuals of sizes considered attractive to the market.