Principal Investigator
Lorenz Hauser, University of Washington, School of Aquatic and Fishery Sciences
Co-Principal Investigators
Brady Blake, Washington Department of Fish & Wildlife
Jonathan Davis, Pacific Shellfish Institute and Taylor Shellfish Company, Inc.
Brent Vadopalas, University of Washington, School of Aquatic and Fishery Sciences
Background
Prized flavor and the ability to thrive in widely diverse conditions make the native purple-hinged rock scallop a prime candidate for aquaculture. But state rules forbid transferring broodstock for fear of undermining wild populations. This project will investigate those populations’ genetic differentiation, habitat adaptation, and resilience to acidification using several experimental approaches: (1) gene sequencing to determine genetic diversity within and between populations; (2) rearing larvae from various Washington, Alaska, and California populations in common conditions at ambient and high carbon dioxide levels; (3) reciprocally transplanting three different Washington populations to compare the performance of local and non-local scallops; and (4) integrating all these results to determine the effects of transplantation on local adaptation. The results will inform pending regulatory decisions and may contribute to development of a new, sustainable, and highly desirable native shellfish crop.
Research Updates
Washington Sea Grant supported-researchers worked with the Puget Sound Restoration Fund to develop an experimental system for measuring acidification effects on marine organisms and populations at NOAA’s Ken Chew Center for Shellfish Research and Restoration quarantine facility in Manchester, Washington.
The OA system was built and optimized. It performs well, allowing direct comparison of populations of a wide variety of organisms across their entire ranges.