Dataset: Salinity tolerance without acclimation: Water Quality

A detailed description of methods was written by Marshall et al. (2021). In summary, mortality of oyster spat spawned from four different broodstocks was measured when exposed to five different salinities (without acclimation) under controlled laboratory conditions. Oyster broodstocks were sourced from two populations in Louisiana (Calcasieu Lake; 29°50′58′′N, 93°17′1′′W, and Vermilion Bay; 29°34′47′′N, 92°2′4′′W) and two populations in Texas (Packery Channel; 27°37′38′′N, 97°13′59′′W, and Aransas Bay; 28°7′38′′N, 96°59′8′′W). This salinity tolerance experiment was conducted in November–December 2018 (Trial 1) and March–April 2019 (Trial 2) at Texas A&M University-Corpus Christi.

In each trial, 25 oysters from each stock were placed in labelled petri dishes within 15 38-L tanks (100 oysters per tank) with aerated artificial seawater (using Instant Ocean Reef Crystals Reef Salt, Blacksburg, Virginia) at 25 °C and salinities of 2.0, 4.0, 20.0, 38.0 and 44.0; each salinity treatment was replicated three times (5 salinity treatments × 3 replicate groups = 15 tanks). The temperature of each tank was maintained using Hydor 100W submersible glass aquarium heaters. Temperature and salinity from each tank were recorded daily. Nutrient (NO2, NO2, NH3/NH4) concentrations in each tank were measured approximately weekly. Oysters were fed daily with Shellfish Diet 1800® unless the water was cloudy (i.e., food from the previous day hadn’t been consumed).