Habitat degradation correlates with tolerance to climate-change related stressors in the green mussel Perna viridis from West Java, Indonesia Carolin Charlotte Wendling a,1 , Mareike Huhn b,2 , Nurina Ayu c , Ramadian Bachtiar c , Karen von Juterzenka c , Mark Lenz d,⇑ a Zoologisches Institut, Johannes Gutenberg Universität Mainz, Johann-Joachim-Becherweg 13, 55128 Mainz, Germany b Lehrstuhl für Tierökologie und Tropenbiologie (Zoologie III), Julius-Maximilians-Universität Würzburg, Am Hubland, 97074 Würzburg, Germany c Bogor Agricultural University, Jl. Raya Darmaga Kampus, IPB Darmaga Bogor, 16680 West Java, Indonesia d GEOMAR Helmholtz-Zentrum für Ozeanforschung Kiel, Düsternbrooker Weg 20, 24105 Kiel, Germany article info Keywords: Climate change Stress tolerance Eutrophication Pollution Perna viridis Indonesia abstract It is unclear whether habitat degradation correlates with tolerance of marine invertebrates to abiotic stress. We therefore tested whether resistance to climate change-related stressors differs between pop- ulations of the green mussel Perna viridis from a heavily impacted and a mostly pristine site in West Java, Indonesia. In laboratory experiments, we compared their oxygen consumption and mortality under low- ered salinity (13 and 18 units, both responses), hypoxia (0.5 mg/l, mortality only) and thermal stress (+7 °C, mortality only). Mussels from the eutrophied and polluted Jakarta Bay showed a significantly smaller deviation from their normal oxygen consumption and higher survival rates when stressed than their conspecifics from the unaffected Lada Bay. This shows that human induced habitat degradation cor- relates with mussel tolerance to environmental stress. We discuss possible mechanisms – e.g. the selec- tion of tolerant genotypes or habitat-specific differences in the nutritional status of the mussels – that could explain our observation. Ó 2013 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved. 1. Introduction Marine habitats of Indonesia, which are located near urbanized areas are – like many coastal regions worldwide – subjected to di- rect human influences such as pollution and eutrophication. The latter alter habitat quality and threaten the diversity and stability of marine communities as well as human health (Arifin, 2004; Hut- agalung, 1987; Hutagalung and Syamsu, 1986; Ohno et al., 1984). Due to urbanization, Jakarta Bay in West Java is now one of the most heavily impacted marine areas in Indonesia and a pro- nounced decrease in the number and density of benthic species has been observed during the last three decades (Arifin, 2004; Ari- fin et al., 2003). Since 1938, for example, species richness among bivalves has decreased by 50–80%, depending on the family (van der Meij et al., 2009). While anthropogenic habitat degradation in coastal ecosystems is mainly restricted to urbanized areas, climate change-related stressors such as warming, desalination and hypoxia act every- where (Cardoso et al., 2008; Gray, 1997). In the tropics, sea surface temperatures have increased by almost 1 °C within the last 100 years and are predicted to increase further at a rate of 1–2 °C per century (IPCC, 2007). Elevated water temperatures can impair the fitness of marine organisms and alter their distributional ranges (Harley et al., 2006; McWilliams et al., 2005; Somero, 2002). In addition to this, warming increases evaporation, resulting in an intensified hydrological cycle and enhanced vapor pressure (Fowler and Hennessy, 1995). Current climate models therefore suggest that precipitation rates will increase in areas of tropical precipitation maxima and extreme rainfalls will become more fre- quent in South-East Asia (IPCC, 2007). This, in turn, will enhance diffuse land run-off and river discharge what leads to desalination and sedimentation in near-shore waters with negative effects on resident marine organisms. Goodbody (1961), for instance, re- ported three events of mass mortalities among sessile marine ani- mals, mostly hydroids, ascidians and echinoderms, in Kingston Harbor, Jamaica, following heavy rain fall events. More and more often, anthropogenic habitat degradation and climate change-related stressors act in concert – with unknown consequences for marine coastal communities (Harley et al., 2006). Although the need to understand the interplay between multiple stressors has long been highlighted (Breitburg et al., 1998), ecologists still fail in predicting the combined effects of 0025-326X/$ - see front matter Ó 2013 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved. http://dx.doi.org/10.1016/j.marpolbul.2013.03.004 ⇑ Corresponding author. Tel.: +49 421 600 4576; fax: +49 431 600 1671. E-mail addresses: carolin.wendling@awi.de (C.C. Wendling), mhuhn@geomar.de (M. Huhn), ucme.likeme@yahoo.com (N. Ayu), rbachtiar@gmail.com (R. Bachtiar), kvjuterzenka@hazweio.com (K.von Juterzenka), mlenz@geomar.de (M. Lenz). 1 Present address: Alfred Wegener Institut Helmholtz-Zentrum für Polar und Meeresforschung, Hafenstraße 43, 25992 List, Germany. 2 Present address: GEOMAR Helmholtz-Zentrum für Ozeanforschung Kiel, Düsternbrooker Weg 20, 24105 Kiel, Germany. Marine Pollution Bulletin 71 (2013) 222–229 Contents lists available at SciVerse ScienceDirect Marine Pollution Bulletin journal homepage: www.elsevier.com/locate/marpolbul