Mytilus mussels and their Environment: a phenotypic and genomic Exploration through Time – MEET

MEET, “Mytilus mussels and their Environment: a phenotypic and genomic Exploration through Time”, is a multi-disciplinary project aiming at better understanding the responses of coastal populations to environmental shifts. This will be achieved by tracking morphological and genomic changes in wild Mytilus mussels through time and across environmental gradients. This novel approach will combine 2D/3D-morphometric, ancient DNA, stable isotope and trace element analyses of a unique collection of shells from the Baltic Sea and Greenland dated to the last 9,000 years. MEET provides a unique opportunity to characterise, at high-resolution, the interplay between the different biological responses of mussels to environmental changes, their speed and magnitude, while controlling for their confounding effects. The objectives of MEET are relevant to the growing societal concern over on-going global environmental changes and their damaging consequences on biodiversity.