Increased abundance of potentially pathogenic Vibrio and a marine heatwave co-occur with a Pacific Oyster summer mortality event

The Pacific Oyster (Crassostrea gigas) is an important aquaculture species, that has been globally affected by “summer mortality” outbreaks. The causes of summer mortality are often unclear, but several contributing factors have been implicated. To better understand the factors contributing to C. gigas summer mortality, we performed a 24 week experiment in tanks filled by a continuous flow of unfiltered surface seawater during a summer mortality high-risk period. Throughout this period, we measured a suite of environmental parameters, with weekly sampling to characterise the bacterial community composition, the abundance and diversity of the Vibrio genus, and the expression of oyster immune response genes. We observed three clear phases of oyster mortality: Phase 1 (day 0 to 75) was characterised by sporadic and low levels (mean