Temperature acclimatisation of swimming performance in the European Queen Scallop

The phenotypic plasticity of muscle performance and locomotory physiology allows the maintenance of essential activity capacity in the face of environmental change, and has been demonstrated in a wide phylogenetic range of eurythermal vertebrates. This study used the scallop, Aequipecten opercularis, as a model eurythermal invertebrate. Animals caught in different seasons demonstrated marked differences in their swimming performance and the relationship between temperature and performance. When stimulated to swim at natural ranges of temperature, Winter (cold acclimatised), animals accelerated faster than autumn collected animals swimming at the same temperature (×2 at 11 °C) and attained higher velocities during jetting. The effects of acclimatisation were confined to the jetting phase and may be a mechanism for the maintenance of acceleration during predator-prey interactions. This is the first demonstration of the thermal acclimatisation of muscle performance in a mollusc and one of very few studies in invertebrates.