The Regional Spatial Structure of Parasites and Pathologies in Oysters and Mussels in the United States: 16 Years of Mussel Watch

Temporal Structure and Trends of Parasites and Pathologies in U.S. Oysters and Mussels: 16 Years of Mussel Watch

“…Moreover, hybrids occur in some locations (Braby & Somero 2006, Elliott et al 2008. Powell and Kim (2015) found few differences in parasite body burden between M. californianus and the other mytilids that could not be explained by the inherently larger size of M. californianus. Thus, the mytilid species were not distinguished in subsequent analyses of temporal trends.…”

“…The Southern Gulf, bays 88-93 (East Matagorda Bay to the Laguna Madre) and 63-66 (Tampa Bay to the Everglades), was distinguished from the Northern Gulf, bays 67-87 (Cedar Key to the Brazos River). East Coast (Engle & Summers 1999, Llans o et al 2002, Rohde 2002, exert a material influence on the distributional patterns of parasites, even when host ranges cross provincial boundaries, as do the ranges of the principal Mussel Watch sentinel bivalves (Powell & Kim 2015). Within the geographic range of Mussel Watch, Hall (1964) Wilson et al (1992) noted geographic boundaries in the Gulf of Mexico at Tampa Bay, FL (bay 66), in the vicinity of the Mississippi River (bays 77-78), and between Matagorda Bay and Aransas Bay, TX (bays 89-91).…”

“…The degree of variation between years was assessed using analysis of variance with bay and year as main effects. Differences between bays were considered by Powell and Kim (2015) and are not investigated further here. A significant ''year'' main effect was interpreted to mean that variation between years was significant.…”

“…Regional analyses were based on the allocation of bays to provinces as described in Powell and Kim (2015). East Coast bays where oysters were collected were divided into three sections: bays 56-61 (St. Johns River to Florida Bay), bays 49-55 (south Pamlico Sound to Sapelo Sound), and bays 39-48 (Delaware Bay to north Pamlico Sound).…”

“…Sentinel bivalves included four Mytilus mussel species, two Dreissena mussel species, and the oyster Crassostrea virginica. This is the most comprehensive dataset of its kind and provides a unique opportunity to examine long-term temporal trends and interannual variability in the prevalence and infection intensity of parasites and pathologies (Powell & Kim 2015).…”