The consequences of climate change have resulted in prodigious fluctuations in the ecosystems of coastal habitats. Ramifications, such as elevated aerial and water temperatures or rising ocean acidity, induce stress responses, biologically. As a sessile organism, the mussel Mytilus californianus, must cope with increasing thermal aerial conditions and acute heat shocks at low tide. Although an anticipatory response is prompted in model systems when undergoing an energetically demanding heat shock response. This results an upregulation of mechanisms utilized to maintain the homeostatic state of biological systems as energy is reallocated away from growth. Amylase activity, starch digestion, is measurable proxy for energy acquisition in mussels acclimated to simulated tidal conditions used to isolate the impact on digestion from aerial heat. While previous evidence showed adverse effects on amylase activity from increased aerial temperature after acclimation to simulated thermal patterns—we predicted a mitigation of this effect due to elevated feeding and digestion. In the current study, we continued to examine the relationship between food and digestion while subjecting mussels to single daily low-tides of two aerial conditions for a 13-day acclimation period. The control group encompassed isothermic (15 C°) conditions, while the treatment was 25 C° at low tide. There were further subdivisions of fed and fasted groups. Post acclimation, extreme acute heat shock (32 C°) at low tide ensued with feeding periods at high tide for all conditions. Results displayed robust activity at low-tide occurring in fasted cold and fed (cool and hot) groups suggesting the implementation of preparatory mechanisms for forthcoming high-tide conditions. However, the fasted and heated conditions, the least energetically optimal, displayed a reduction in enzyme activity at low-tide while the acute heat shock demonstrated overall detrimental effects. Thus, validating increasing temperatures due to climate change amplify the consequence poleward migration if not local extinction of mussels. 

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