Masura, JulieWeakland, SandyBurgess, DanyDoffing, Lauren2026-02-042026-02-042022-06-13https://hdl.handle.net/1773/54890The Marine Sediment Monitoring Team at the Washington State Department of Ecology observed damage to mollusk shells while studying the benthic communities of Puget Sound. A pilot protocol was written to allow researchers to quantify the damage. Two researchers independently followed the protocol, including reference photos, for a set of samples collected in 2019 from an urban bay, East Possession Sound. Two scores were given to each specimen: highest-level damage and extent of highest-level damage. An additional score was given to bivalve species: rust/stain. The sets of scores were compared to determine if the protocol yielded similar values between the two researchers. The mean for highest-level damage (0.750, P-Value2in marine waters, potentially interfere with the ability of mollusk species to build and repair their shells.ocean acidificationshell damage scoringprotocolMolluskbivalvepHThesis