THE ROLE OF SYMBIONTS IN THE ANTHROPOCENE

Virtually all plants and animals, including humans, establish symbiotic relationships. These can be neutral, harmful or have beneficial effects on the host organism. The description of entities as ‘parasite’ or ‘mutualist’ suggests a simple binary system whereby species experience positive or negative impacts on fitness during interactions. However, these terms represent extremes of a continuum along which the host-symbiont relationship can shift. The conditions under which symbioses evolved in nature are rapidly changing in the Anthropocene. Anthropocene changes are driving drastic variations in selective pressures profoundly shaping symbiotic interactions. The context-dependency of symbiotic interactions has been well known for decades but a framework for understanding how symbionts and thus their relationship with their host vary in Anthropocene has yet to be formulated and tested experimentally in key biological models.
The focus will be on Intertidal mussels. These are important ecosystem engineers of intertidal ecosystems. Because numerous species and ecological processes depend on them, changes in their abundance can have several significant knock-on effects in the coastal ecosystems they sustain with profound impact on intertidal food webs. General hypotheses will be tested by investigating the role of the hosts symbionts in modulating the effect of major anthropogenic stressors such as plastic pollution and heat waves.

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