Environmental Issues Of Invasive Mussels

Today, what once was a scenic lake is covered in chest-high weeds. “ Boaters and fisherman enjoy going to Lake Bridgeport during the summer. But in the summer of 2013 the boat ramps were unusable so the number of residents going to the lake dropped. There are dead fish floating to the shoreline as well as many other wildlife animals. The lake tested positive for Zebra Mussel larva, which is shell like creatures that are very sharp and stick to boats, anchors and docks. The Mussels are very dangerous for the lake environment, but they also eat bacteria so they could help the lake water clear up. If no water is drained out of Lake Bridgeport then the residents of Eagle Mountain Lake and Lake Worth could possibly run out of drinking water.

As well as pollution, invasive species are damaging the lake ecosystems and food chains, made fragile by pollution and overfishing. The introduction of a new species throws off the balance of food chains. Some common invasive species include the sea lamprey, Asian carp, and zebra mussels, among many others. Zebra mussels have dramatically influenced and affected stable food chains by reducing the amount of zooplankton and phytoplankton. This presents a problem, as fish mostly feed on the drifters, and so they go hungry and die, leaving no food for larger fish to prey on. In addition to underwater disruption, it affects us as well, but only slightly. Plankton and algae especially are the most productive aquatic producers of oxygen, and by the decreasing population, we lose oxygen as well. The sea lamprey is also a problem, though it is not so influential to ecosystems as the zebra mussel.

In this research paper I will talk about how a large decrease in the algae population in the Chesapeake Bay will cause problems for not just fish and other species but the people who fish and make a living off of it. A large decrease in algae population will have a domino effect on the food chain. Having a major decrease in algae will hurt how others species live and protect themselves.

     Colonization by zebra mussels has devastating ecological impacts on native bivalves (Mackie, 1991; Haag et al., 1993), frequently driving them to local extinction. Zebra mussels readily, perhaps preferentially, settle on native bivalves and eventually cover them over. They filter the water so efficiently that they can lower the amount of suspended food organisms below levels needed to sustain native unionids.

Some examples include the zebra mussel, sea lamprey, and Asian carp. The zebra mussel first came to the great lakes by traveling in the ballast water of a transoceanic vessel. Over the years, it has spread into the entire great lakes system. They are very dense with contaminants, which causes predators to stray away from them and not digest them. The zebra mussel has had many negative impacts on the ecosystem. A zebra mussel can attach themselves firmly to any solid object, which has caused water intake and discharge pipes to clog. Some other impacts include suppressing native mussels, over clarifying the water, and stripping water from various plankton that native fish eat. Sea lamprey are another invasive species in the great lakes. A sea lamprey is an eel like fish that sucks bodily fluids from other fish. They have traveled to the great lakes on their own by swimming up the Hudson River. They have contributed to the collapse of the whitefish and lake trout fisheries. Some prevention actions have been put in place and include chemical treatments of spawning

First of all, Zebra mussel disrupt the food chain. In the Great lakes, zebra mussels eat the plankton that small, native fish need to survive. Consequently, this hurts the native fish and the larger fish that feed them.

Introduced species are seldom a positive addition to an ecosystem as they cause great stress and harm to the populations of native species. Many introduced species become invasive as they have no natural predators in their new environment, therefore they thrive, and crowd out all other animals. Some examples of invasive species in Ontario waters include the round goby, zebra mussels, eurasian ruffe, goldfish, northern snakehead, rainbow smelt, and rudd, to name a few. A great example to show how destructive an introduced fish can be is the asian carp, this species spreads very aggressively and it is considered the greatest threat to aquatic ecosystems in Ontario. These fish grow to be very large in size, up to 40 kg and 1 meter long. The asian

In the article published by the Detroit Free Press “How do you get rid 750 trillion mussels in the Great Lakes” written by Kathleen Lavey, the author discusses how there is currently no technology that would help on a large enough scale to kill all of the invasive mussels. Lavey talks about how there are paints that contain chili peppers which muscles don’t atach to. Companies use this paint on intake pipes so they do not get clogged with muscles. Lavey also discusses 060Bio which a piece of foam that is infused with copper and zinc ions which muscles find unsavory. They place these on boats, that way boats don’t get infested with muscles and move them around the lakes. There are many different ideas out there but they don’t have a method that

Along the coasts of rocky beaches, an intricate ecological community inhabits the ‘rocky intertidal’ areas. The variety of rocks is home to an array of slimy, squishy, and colorful organisms. This intertidal community is comprised of nine species: three different algae, three stationary filter-feeders, and three mobile consumers. The three algae, Nori Seaweed, Black Pine, and Coral Weed, are the community’s producers and inhabit the bottom of the food chain. The next three species are stationary consumers. They are Mussel, Goose Neck Barnacle, and Acorn Barnacle. Because of their consumer status, they are more competitively dominant than algae. The last three components are the mobile consumers: Whelk, Chiton, and Starfish. They

The ecosystem with which the simulation is being done is an aquatic ecosystem. This specific ecosystem is home to producers such as: black pine, coral weed, and nori seaweed. Stationary consumers like acorn barnacles, gooseneck barnacles, and mussels are also present. Mobile consumers such as chitin, starfish, and whelk. The invasive mobile consumer is the green crab. Animals such as starfish compete with others like green crabs for mussels. Starfish and whelk prey on and also compete for the gooseneck barnacle. Whelk and green crab also compete for the acorn barnacles. The competition between starfish and green crab over mussels is what led me to my hypothesis as the mussel is one of the largest secondary consumers in terms

In the 1980’s, the zebra mussels arrived in the United States as an invasive species after being carried through the ballast of ships. With that, they began to feed on the native mussels and compete with them for filtering food that the natives eat themselves. They eventually become successful in their environment after spreading throughout the Great Lakes and the many rivers in the United States through the ability to live in various environments, and latch onto other objects to move around, and reproduce at an incredibly rapid pace. However, despite the zebra mussels spreading throughout the area, there are various options that humans took to deal with the zebra

Recently zebra mussels from Black Sea, stowed away in ballast water ships, invaded North American waters, they blocked the water lines of factories, nuclear power plants in the regions of Great Lakes. Just after the arrival of Christopher Columbus’s ships in America in 15th century resulted in worldwide exchange of disease, crops and animals in the 20th century practice of ships using water as ballast helped to unite the formerly diverse world’s harbours. Similarly, air transport allows the spread of insects and diseases that would not easily survive

With the increasing amount of disturbed habitats, invasive species could soon become the leading cause of ecological degradation (Soulé & Orians, 2001).  Invasive species can alter habitats in a number of ways.  Changes in the physical structure of the land are the most visually obvious.  Examples include narrowing stream channels, reducing sand supply to dunes, and stabilizing surfaces such as mudflats, and each invasive species goes about these changes in their own way.  For instance, the burrowing activities of Australian isopods cause the banks of tidal channels to collapse, leading to the widening of channels and the loss of vegetated salt marsh (Cox, 1999).  On the other hand, Japanese mussels that have invaded the San Diego area are stabilizing mudflats.  Although reaching Southern California in the 1960s,

First off, Because of their design with the razor sharp shells, Zebra Mussels is known to injure swimmers and people who walk on top of them. Another problem with the zebra Mussels is that they reproduce at an extremely rapid rate. Causing them to be uncontrollable in most instances. Zebra Mussels latch onto any solid object, and live perfect on any solid object. For example, they live and bread radically on boat ramps. (NOBANIS –Invasive Alien Species Fact Sheet) Making for boaters who are trying to unload their boat a more difficult job since they have to be more diligent when in the water next to them. Another problem with zebra mussels is that they compete with fish for food. Zebra mussels consume up to a liter of water a day, consuming tons of plankton and other microorganism. (Zebra Mussels (Dreissena

Zebra mussels threaten aquatic ecosystems because of their ability to filter about a quart of water per day. While water clarity is improved during this process, the zebra mussels disrupt the food chain by removing plankton, which supports the existence of native mussels and fish.