Mytilus edulis

Geographic Range

Mytilus edulis is found in coastal areas of the northern Atlantic Ocean, including North America, Europe, and the northern Palearctic. They are found from the White Sea in Russia to southern France, throughout the British Isles, with large commercial beds in the Wash, Morecambe Bay, Conway Bay and southwest England, north Wales, and west Scotland. In the west Atlantic, M. edulis occupies the southern Canadian Maritime provinces to North Carolina.

• Biogeographic Regions
• nearctic nearctic
  • native native
• atlantic ocean atlantic ocean
  • native native
• pacific ocean pacific ocean
  • introduced introduced

Habitat

Mytilus edulis is eurythermal and are able to withstand freezing conditions for several months. Blue mussels are well acclimated to a 5 to 20 °C temperature range, with an upper sustained thermal tolerance limit of about 29 °C for adults. Blue mussels do not thrive in salinities of less than 15%, but can withstand wide environmental fluctuations. Their depth ranges from 5 to 10 meters. Usually, M. edulis is found in subtidal and intertidal beds on rocky shores, and remain permanently attached there. The range of Mytilus edulis is limited by the movement of drifting larval and juvenile stages.

• Habitat Regions
• temperate temperate
• polar polar
• saltwater or marine saltwater or marine

• Aquatic Biomes
• coastal coastal
• brackish water brackish water

• Other Habitat Features
• estuarine estuarine
• intertidal or littoral intertidal or littoral

Physical Description

Mytilus edulis is characterized by a smooth inequilateral shell, usually purple, blue, or dark brown, which features concentric growth lines emanating from the hinge. The interior of the shell is pearl-white. Internally the mantle has a whitish/yellow color, with a posterior adductor scar significantly larger than its anterior adductor scar. Extending from the closed shell are fibrous brown byssal threads for attachment to a surface.

• Other Physical Features
• ectothermic ectothermic
• heterothermic heterothermic
• bilateral symmetry bilateral symmetry

• Sexual Dimorphism
• female larger

Development

After the egg is fertilized it turns into a ciliated trocophore larva. The trochophore larva then becomes a veliger, which persists 1 to 1.5 months. In this phase, the larva bears ciliated fan-like protrusions and filter feeds before becoming a juvenile and finding a primary settlement location. The primary settlement location is often located in openings in the substrata, or amongst bryozoans or other filamentous structures and often situated away from mature mussels, presumably to decrease competition. After weeks there, the juvenile has doubled in size and detaches to drift again and find a permanent substrate to which to attach. The young adult will attach to the sea floor with a byssus thread or, if such open substrate is not stable, may attach to another mussel, creating a mussel bed.

• Development - Life Cycle
• metamorphosis metamorphosis
• colonial growth colonial growth
• indeterminate growth indeterminate growth

Reproduction

Mytilus edulis sexes are separate and gametes are shed into the water where fertilization occurs.

• Mating System
• polygynandrous (promiscuous) polygynandrous (promiscuous)

Mytilus edulis spawns from April to September, depending on water temperature, currents, and other environmental factors. In most populations, resting gonads begin to develop from October to November, with gametogenesis occurring throughout winter so that gonads are mature in early spring. A partial spawning in spring is followed by rapid gametogenesis, with gonads maturing by early summer, resulting in a less intensive secondary spawning in late August or September. Larvae spawned in spring can take advantage of phytoplankton blooms. Occurrence of the secondary spawning is opportunistic, depending on favorable environmental conditions and food availability. Gametogenesis, spawning, and reproductive strategies vary with geographic location. An individual female can produce 5 to 8 million eggs, larger individuals may produce as many as 40 million eggs. In optimal conditions, larval development may be complete in less than 20 days but larval growth and metamorphosis between spring and early summer, at 10 °C, usually takes 1 month. Pediveligers can delay metamorphosis for up to 40 days at 10 °C or for up to 6 months in some cases.

• Key Reproductive Features
• iteroparous iteroparous
• seasonal breeding seasonal breeding
• gonochoric/gonochoristic/dioecious (sexes separate)
• fertilization fertilization
  • external external
• broadcast (group) spawning

There is no parental care after fertilization.

• Parental Investment
• no parental involvement
• pre-fertilization
  • provisioning
  • protecting
    • female

Lifespan/Longevity

The lifespan of Mytilus edulis may vary considerably depending on attachment location. Settline in more exposed coastal areas make individuals significantly more vulnerable to predation, in large part avian. Quality and stability of the substrate also plays a role in the lifespan. Mussels that settle in exposed locations can experience mortality up to 98% per year. Drifting larval and juvenile stages suffer the highest mortality rates.

Behavior

Mytilus edulis is a sessile species, permanently settling on substrates as adults. In loose substrates blue mussels settle together in beds, with younger individuals smothering the older individuals on which they settle.

• Key Behaviors
• sessile sessile
• sedentary sedentary
• colonial colonial

Communication and Perception

Blue mussels have statocysts to aid in geo-positioning and orientation. Blue mussels have chemoreceptors capable of detecting the release of gametes. These chemoreceptors also help juvenile blue mussels avoid settling temporarily on substrata near mature blue mussle, presumably to decrease competition for food.

• Communication Channels
• chemical chemical

• Perception Channels
• tactile tactile
• chemical chemical

Food Habits

The diet of Mytilus edulis consists of phytoplankton, dinoflagellates, small diatoms, zoospores, flagellates, other protozoans, various unicellular algae, and detritus filtered from the surrounding water. Blue mussels are suspension filter feeders and are considered scavengers, collecting anything in the water column that is small enough to ingest.

• Primary Diet
• planktivore planktivore
• detritivore detritivore

• Animal Foods
• eggs
• zooplankton zooplankton

• Plant Foods
• algae
• phytoplankton phytoplankton

• Other Foods
• detritus detritus
• microbes

• Foraging Behavior
• filter-feeding filter-feeding

Predation

Blue mussels are most often found in large mussel beds, where they are somewhat protected from predation by virtue of their numbers. The shell of Mytilus edulis acts as a protective layer, though some predator species are able to crush the shell.

Some predators of M. edulis wait until the mussel is forced to open its valves to breathe. The predator then pushes the mussel's siphon into the gap, wedging the mussel open so it can be eaten.

Ecosystem Roles

Mytilus edulis has a high tolerance for increased sediment levels and help to remove sediments from the water column. Large blue mussel beds provide habitat and prey for other animals and act as a substrate for algal attachment, increasing local diversity. Blue mussel larvae are an important food source for plantivorous animals as well.

Economic Importance for Humans: Positive

People harvest blue mussels as food and they are used in commercial aquaculture. Blue mussels are considered an important food source in some coastal areas and the shells are used in jewelry manufacturing. Blue mussels also help limit algae growth, which has become problematic in the Mediterranean Sea and elsewhere.

• Positive Impacts
• food food
• research and education

Economic Importance for Humans: Negative

There are no known adverse effects of Mytilus edulis on humans.

Conservation Status

Mytilus edulis is fairly common and is abundant in many coastal areas and has therefore not been placed on any conservation list or given any special status.

Additional Links

Encyclopedia of Life

Contributors

Tanya Dewey (editor), Animal Diversity Web.

Craig Zagata (author), Rutgers University, Christy Young (author), Rutgers University, Joanne Sountis (author), Rutgers University, Melanie Kuehl (author), Rutgers University, David Howe (editor, instructor), Rutgers University .

References

Conservation Management Institute, 2001. "Fish and Wildlife Information Exchange (FWIE)" (On-line). Marine and Coastal Species Information System. Accessed December 12, 2006 at http://fwie.fw.vt.edu/WWW/macsis/lists/M060008.htm .

Nordsieck, R. 2006. "The Living World of Molluscs" (On-line). The Common Mussel (Mytilus edulis). Accessed December 12, 2006 at http://www.weichtiere.at/Mollusks/Muscheln/miesmuschel.html .

Tyler-Walters, H., R. Seed. 2006. "The Marine Life Information Network" (On-line). Accessed December 01, 2006 at http://www.marlin.ac.uk/species/Mytilusedulis.htm .

FAO Inland Water Resources and Aquaculture Service (FIRI). 2006. "Fisheries Global Information System (FIGIS)" (On-line). Cultured Aquatic Species Information Programme - Mytilus edulis. Accessed December 12, 2006 at http://www.fao.org/figis/servlet/static?dom=culturespecies&xml=Mytilus_edulis.xml .