Lab incubations of mussels (Mytilus californianus) examining the influence of periostracum cover and pH on external shell dissolution at Marshall Gulch Beach, CA from August 2021 to March 2022

Reductions to seawater pH challenge the shell integrity of marine calcifiers. Many molluscs have an external organic layer (the periostracum) that limits exposure of underlying shell to the external environment, which could potentially help combat shell dissolution under corrosive seawater conditions. We tested this possibility in adult California mussels, Mytilus californianus. We quantified shell dissolution rates as a function of periostracum cover across three levels of reduced pH (7.7, 7.5, and 7.4 on the total scale). This dataset represents shell dissolution data of California Mussels as a function of shell periostracum cover and pH level from lab experiments conducted at the Bodega Marine Laboratory, University of California, Davis in July and August 2022. For the current study, adult mussels (42 - 64 mm in length) were collected from Marshall Gulch, California (38.369738 °N, -123.073921 °W) between August 2021 and March 2022 and transported immediately to the University of California Davis’ Bodega Marine Laboratory (< 30 min distance), in Bodega Bay, California. Mussels were held in filtered, flow-through seawater and fed ad libitum until used in experiments.

Further experiments on external shell dissolution were performed in the dataset: Lab incubations of mussels (Mytilus californianus) examining the influence of simulated abrasion of periostracum on external shell dissolution at Marshall Gulch Beach, CA from August 2021 to March 2022 (see BCO-DMO related dataset).