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Conservation Physiology

 
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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.

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Under this prism, the determination of environmental stressors’ temporal and spatial forms and organisms’ respective responses is necessary in order to understand the organisms’ physiological responses, and subsequently provide effective conservation and aquaculture management strategies. In the context of climate change, the study of bivalve mortalities through the metagenomics perspective may contribute heavily in understanding the appearance and involvement of new pathogen species in mortality outbreaks. Also, it is expected to assist further in the prediction of bivalves' physiological performance when adapting new environmental conditions. Moreover, linking metagenomics to physiological understanding of bivalves' responses to thermal stress will assist bivalve breeders in developing higher yielding varieties for marine environments affected by global warming.
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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).