Marine fisheries, aquaculture, and the seafood economy are important economic and cultural pillars in the coastal northeast USA region, generating over a billion dollars in annual sales and supporting communities across the region. Within this region, the Gulf of Maine is warming twice as fast as the global ocean and faces a dual acidification threat: a gradual pH decline from global ocean acidification combined with episodic low-pH events in coastal waters. These changes threaten the local marine calcifying organisms, including the bivalves that anchor its blue food economy. Our research examines both environmental history and organismal response to (1) place recent oceanographic trends in a longer-term context using boron isotopic records from the skeletons of crustose coralline algae, and (2) evaluate future impacts of warming and acidification on four economically important bivalves (Mercenaria mercenaria, hard clam; Mya arenaria, soft-shell clam; Arctica islandica, ocean quahog; and Placopecten magellanicus, Atlantic sea scallop) through controlled laboratory experiments. We found that recent changes in North Atlantic circulation increased the input of high-alkalinity waters in the Gulf of Maine, temporarily buffering seawater chemistry and delaying the local onset of ocean acidification. In a 20.5-week experiment, neither low pH nor elevated temperature increased mortality; instead, warming accelerated growth while low pH caused loss of the shell's protective outer periostracum in some species. Together, these results show how basin-scale ocean change shapes local ecosystems and underscore the value of species-specific research for understanding resilience in the Gulf of Maine’s blue food economy.
 

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