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. 2024 May 8;19(5):e0302935.
doi: 10.1371/journal.pone.0302935. eCollection 2024.

Intra-decadal increase in globally-spread Magallana gigas in southern California estuaries

Marah L Wolfe  1 , Chelsea M Bowers-Doerning  1 , Anabell Espinosa  1 , Ty Frantz  1 , William J Hoese  1 , Joann G Lam  1 , Kailee R Lamp  1 , Rachael A Lyons  1 , Justin K Nguyen  1 , Bryce D Keyes  1 , Jada Smith  1 , Holly L Suther  1   2 , Meaghan Swintek  1 , Juliann C Vannordstrand  1 , Danielle C Zacherl  1
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Intra-decadal increase in globally-spread Magallana gigas in southern California estuaries

Marah L Wolfe et al. PLoS One. .

Abstract

Introduction and establishment of non-indigenous species (NIS) has been accelerated on a global scale by climate change. NIS Magallana gigas' (formerly Crassostrea gigas') global spread over the past several decades has been linked to warming waters, specifically during summer months, raising the specter of more spread due to predicted warming. We tracked changes in density and size distribution of M. gigas in two southern California, USA bays over the decade spanning 2010-2020 using randomly placed quadrats across multiple intertidal habitats (e.g., cobble, seawalls, riprap) and documented density increases by 2.2 to 32.8 times at 7 of the 8 sites surveyed across the two bays. These increases in density were coincident with 2-4° C increases in median monthly seawater temperature during summer months, consistent with global spread of M. gigas elsewhere. Size frequency distribution data, with all size classes represented across sites, suggest now-regular recruitment of M. gigas. Our data provide a baseline against which to compare future changes in density and abundance of a globally-spread NIS of significant concern.

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Conflict of interest statement

The authors have declared that no competing interests exist.

Figures

Fig 1
Fig 1
Site locations surveyed from 2010–2020 in Newport Bay (left panel) and from 2013–2020 in San Diego Bay (right panel), California, USA. Squares indicate locations where temperature data were collected and circles reference sites surveyed with site codes as in Table 1. Basemap and service layer content is the intellectual property of Esri and is used herein with permission. Copyright © 2023 Esri and its licensors. All rights reserved.
Fig 2
Fig 2. Average M. gigas densities per m2 from 2010–2020 in Newport (upper panel, dashed lines) and San Diego (lower panel, solid lines) Bays, CA, USA.
Y-axis is log scale. Site colors reference the relative distance to the mouth of the bay (cooler colors = closer, warmer colors = farther). PN was surveyed in 2013 and M. gigas was not detected, therefore its 2013 density cannot be graphed on a log scale. Error bars are ± 1 standard error.
Fig 3
Fig 3. Relative size frequency distributions (proportions) of M. gigas individuals per 10-mm size bin for the time periods 2010–2015 versus 2016–2020 in Newport (sites LI, AC, FS) and San Diego (CV) Bays, CA, USA.
Fig 4
Fig 4
Sea Surface Temperatures for Newport (NP) and San Diego (SD) regions, CA, USA across years (2010–2020) during months June (top panel) through September (bottom panel). Dark blue = Newport Beach Pier (NP), light blue = Scripps Pier (SD), and orange = US Midway (SD). Quartiles displayed in the box plot; median is middle line; points are outliers.
See this image and copyright information in PMC

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