The role of salinity in physiological responses of bivalves

Abstract In recent years, financial losses due to salinity changes threat bivalve industry. In natural habitat, marine bivalves should be adapted to a series of environmental stressors, including biotic (virus, bacteria and protozoan) and abiotic (salinity, temperature and heavy metal) factors. It is known that salinity fluctuations able to change distribution and vital parameters of bivalves. Suboptimal salinity conditions resulted in changes in defense mechanism, growth, free amino acid, heart rate, oxygen consumption and filtration rate. However, it is necessary to determine the optimal salinity level of cultured bivalves to avoid the risk of mortality and improve growth rate. Therefore, this study aimed to review the findings from various reports in vitro and in vivo conditions which evaluated physiological and immunological responses of different bivalve species submitted to different salinity concentrations. The information of present study is very important in understanding the physiological responses of bivalves, which are living in highly changeable environment such as estuarine.