Bivalve immune responses and climate changes: is there a relationship?

Global climate changes (GCCs) are predicted to occur in the next hundred years through increases in temperature, water acidification and changes in seawater salinity. Increasing atmospheric CO2 concentrations are considered to be the main responsible for GCCs. Climate changes can pose risks for aquatic ecosystems, mainly for marine coastal areas that are ecologically and economically important. In this context, increasing effort has been addressed to the evaluation of effects of variations in abiotic factors, such as temperature, salinity and pH, on biological responses of marine organisms, as deviation from the optimum for these factors may result in deleterious consequences for the physiological performance of animals. In a climate change scenario, the present review focuses on the effects of variations in some important environmental factors - mainly temperature, salinity and pH - on immune parameters of bivalves.