1. Marine aquaculture relies on coastal habitats that will be affected by climate change. This review assesses current knowledge of the threats and opportunities of climate change for aquaculture in the UK and Ireland, focusing on the most commonly farmed species, blue mussels (Mytilus edulis) and Atlantic salmon (Salmo salar). 2. There is sparse evidence to indicate that climate change is affecting aquaculture in the UK and Ireland. Impacts to date have been difficult to discern from natural environmental variability, and the pace of technological development in aquaculture overshadows effects of climatic change. However, this review of broader aquaculture literature and the likely effects of climate change suggests that over the next century, climate change has the potential to directly impact the industry. 3. Impacts are related to the industry's dependence on the marine environment for suitable biophysical conditions. For instance, changes in the frequency and strength of storms pose a risk to infrastructure, such as salmon cages. Sea-level rise will shift shoreline morphology, reducing the areal extent of some habitats that are suitable for the industry. Changes in rainfall patterns will increase the turbidity and nutrient loading of rivers, potentially triggering harmful algal blooms and negatively affecting bivalve farming. In addition, ocean acidification may disrupt the early developmental stages of shellfish. 4. Some of the most damaging but least predictable effects of climate change relate to the emergence, translocation and virulence of diseases, parasites and pathogens, although parasites and diseases in finfish aquaculture may be controlled through intervention. The spread of nuisance and non-native species is also potentially damaging. 5. Rising temperatures may create the opportunity to rear warmer water species in theUKand Ireland. Market forces, rather than technical feasibility, are likely to determine whether existing farmed species are displaced by new ones

Planktonic flagellates and ciliates are the major consumers of phytoplankton and bacterioplankton in aquatic environments, playing a pivotal role in carbon cycling and nutrient regeneration. Despite certain unicellular predators using chemosensory responses to locate and select their prey, the biochemical mechanisms behind prey reception and selection have not been elucidated. Here we identify a Ca(2+)-dependent, mannose-binding lectin on the marine dinoflagellate Oxyrrhis marina, which is used as a feeding receptor for recognizing prey. Blocking the receptor using 20 microM mannose-BSA inhibited ingestion of phytoplankton prey, Isochrysis galbana, by 60%. In prey selection studies, O. marina ingested twice as many 6 mum diameter beads coated with mannose-BSA as those coated with galNac-BSA. When pre-incubated with mannose-BSA, O. marina was no longer able to discriminate between different sugar-coated beads. Thus, these findings reveal molecular mechanisms of protozoan prey recognition. Our results also indicate the functional similarity between cellular recognition used by planktonic protozoa to discriminate between different prey items, and those used by metazoan phagocytic blood cells to recognize invading microorganisms.

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The Irish Sea and surrounding regions are a rich source of shellfish production as a result of captive fishing and aquaculture. Key species produced include lobsters (Homarus gammarus), edible crabs (Cancer pagurus), langoustines (Nephrops norvegicus), flat oysters (Ostrea edulis), cockles (Cerestoderma edule) and blue mussels (Mytilus edulis). The role played by infectious disease in limiting the sustainability of the production of these species is largely neglected. This review summarizes our knowledge of the key diseases of commercially important crustaceans and bivalve molluscs and attempts to determine their role in limiting the population of animals available for food production both at present and in the future. It shows that the key diseases threatening the sustainability of shellfish production are bitter crab disease in langoustines and edible crabs, and a wide range of diseases caused by micro- and macro-parasites in some bivalve molluscs including oysters and cockles. Oceanographic models are also employed to predict how changes in climate over the next half century may affect these key diseases and their hosts as found in the Irish Sea. It is concluded that the paucity of information on the potential transfer of some disease agents in pelagic larval stages of hosts and vectors is a major hurdle in predicting how some changes in environmental conditions may influence the prevalence and severity of shellfish diseases in coming years.