In recent years, we have seen an increase in the number of extreme rainfall events as well as an increase in the number of dry periods. This is causing a lot of problems for oysters in the Gulf of Mexico, which depend on water that is not too salty and not too fresh to thrive. Go either way, and they don’t do well. This year, it’s been quite wet, so the runoff into the Gulf is fresher than usual, which puts stress on the oysters. In the past, drought has caused the salinity in the Gulf to get much stronger, allowing saltwater predators like oyster drills to attack the oysters. This article from Yale Climate Connections describes what oysters in the future will be up against as the climate swings between extremes of precipitation.

Source: Peter Whyte, CSIRO, via Commons Wikimedia