Environmental Science · Global and Planetary Change
Researchers found that a sea snail usually considered a subordinate grazer can overgraze localized patches within Tasmanian kelp beds when it becomes unusually abundant. Kelp recovery followed a decline in the snails, while overgrazing persisted where the snails were kept together.
Blue mussels from an Irish hybrid zone responded to repeated heat stress with time-dependent changes in stress-related genes. One key heat-shock gene (hsp24) was strongly induced 24 hours after heat exposure, but expression dropped at later time points. The findings show that how mussels cope with warming may depend on when researchers measure their responses—an issue that matters for managing both wild populations and mussel farming.
