Conservation Physiology
Commercially-important bivalve species are frequently threatened by the effects of multiple stressors, including pollution, microbiological diseases, which may cause reductions in the size of farmed and wild populations. Conservation physiology aims to apply physiological concepts, tools, and techniques to characterize multi-scale responses to environmental stressors, underpinning our understanding of physiological constraints. Moreover, it facilitates the translation of molecular and cellular responses of individual organisms, to changes observed at the population, community, and ecosystemic scale. On the other hand the development of -omics sciences will provide a remarkable contribution to species conservation biology, significantly increasing the ability of researchers to obtain insights into the molecular mechanisms adopted by bivalve species in order to cope with environmental changes. As such, there is significant crossover between physiology as a discipline, and the goals of conservation, particularly as they pertain to assessing threats to the environment.
Also, since bivalve robustness in the face of climate change is a complex trait affected by multiple genes, the application of modern genomic tools in selective breeding is expected to enhance the accuracy and efficacy of genetic improvement and produce bivalve strains resilient to climate change. In the prism of marker assisted selection (MAS) or genotype assisted selection (GAS), our understanding of the physiological responses and interactions of bivalves with their environment will help in selecting genetic markers (morphological, biochemical, or DNA/RNA variations) linked to traits of interest (e.g. productivity, disease resistance, abiotic stress tolerance, and quality).