Award: OCE-2023571

Understanding how marine communities will respond to rapidly changing ocean conditions is difficult because species responses can vary across populations and because organisms may evolve over time. For example, populations of animals and plants can be “locally adapted” to their home environments, especially if they range broadly across areas that differ in physical conditions like temperature and rainfall. This project used field approaches, laboratory experiments, and genomic techniques to understand how a marine predatory snail, the Atlantic oyster drill, is locally adapted. This species is important for study because it preys upon oysters that form fisheries and create habitat for other marine species. Atlantic oyster drills are also introduced on the west coast and native to the east coast of the United States. In California, invasive Atlantic oyster drills have large negative impacts on the conservation and restoration of native species such as Olympia oysters. 

Our experiments and data reveal important insights into the biology and ecology of Atlantic oyster drills. Sampling across 13 populations throughout the native and introduced range indicates that the west coast populations largely originated from southern New England, where they were staged before being transported via the trans-continental railroad in the late 1800s. It appears that their success in the invaded range comes from the fact that Atlantic oyster drills have flexible physiology and environmental conditions in California are mild as compared to the east coast. Genomic data and long-term laboratory experiments also show that this species is strongly locally adapted, differing greatly across populations. For example, Atlantic oyster drills that originate from North Carolina (a “warm” site) grow substantially faster and have more offspring than snails from New Hampshire (a “cold” site) when reared in the lab in the same conditions. This pattern appears to be driven by a drastically different “pace of life” at each location, where southern populations experience greater rates of predation by animals such as blue and stone crabs. This predation pressure may select for Atlantic oyster drills that grow quickly, move fast, and likely die young. In contrast, northern populations experience much less predation. These animals appear to grow and move slowly, and possibly live to an older age with a much slower “pace of life”. 

Our project also supported larger scale analyses across many different studies using a data science technique called meta-analysis. This approach brings together different sources of data from the scientific literature to ask questions about how many different species may be locally adapted to their environments. Here, we were able to discover two important findings about local adaptation. First, we found that local adaptation in heat tolerance appears to be stronger in the sea than on land. This may occur because of the “Bogert effect”, which predicts that the evolution of heat tolerance for land animals is slowed by behavior. Animals can hide in cooler micro-environments like shady areas, underground, or in shelters and are therefore shielded from high temperatures. In contrast, ocean environments have less refuge from high temperatures and populations become locally adapted to warmer conditions. This finding is important because it suggests that conservation of ocean animals in the face of changing conditions may be promoted by highly connected populations that can pass along these adaptive traits. Second, we discovered that animals that have greater overall heat tolerance have less flexibility in this tolerance, which may be important for recurring heat waves over time. This finding is important because it suggests that animals that live in hot climates may have diminished ability to adapt to rapidly warming conditions. 

This project also supported ocean science through the training of many early career scientists, including 4 postdoctoral fellows, 7 graduate students, and 14 undergraduate students. We also developed an early career development mentoring program that focused on revealing the hidden curriculum of faculty job interviews by mentoring 12 postdoctoral fellows in a 9 month long training program. This project also developed partnerships with non-profit organizations, such as The Nature Conservancy. One graduate student was embedded within TNC, who had a leading role in curating and coordinating oyster restoration data from the SOAR: Supporting Oyster Aquaculture and Restoration project. Finally, this project enhanced teaching at the University of Massachusetts Amherst, where 40 students in 2 marine ecology courses were able to gain hands on experience conducting experiments using Atlantic oyster drills.

 

Last Modified: 12/03/2025
Modified by: Brian S Cheng