Research Paper On Zebra 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.

     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.

Also crabbing which is much like fishing, but the crabs take a major hit every year causes a decrease from taking to many of the species at one time. In fact, it is technically illegal to take a certain percentage of females, however this is rarely enforced as pollution is put into the bay Graczyk, et al (2006) found that salinity levels in the water can cause oyster filtration and energy to change dramatically. Over harvesting isn’t the only cause for the oysters decreasing population. The oysters are also affected by watermen who visit each week for recreational and business purposes. Many oysters are silted over due to mid-Atlantic farms, growing cities and the oyster reefs being destroyed by their dredges (Strickland, 2009). The reefs were not just beneficial to the oysters they are a part of the bays life cycle. The oyster reefs also supply homes for small fish and other small sea creatures (Strickland,

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

The Holocaust was a tragic event that traumatized millions around the world forever. From broken hearts to family deaths, we will never forget those who lived through these haunting times. Those who lived in concentration camps were locked up, and yelled at everyday to do specific things one way. Otherwise, they would be killed. Since the camps were so full of people, diseases spread easily and food was scarce. The prisoners throughout the camp then began to starve and die off. From this derived the term of the “musselmen”. A musselmen is a prisoner of a concentration camp that is neglectful towards their appearance, and are inactive or dementive. As time continued on, starvation and disease throughout the camps caused many changes in the prisoners, which led them to become musselmen. The changes within these musselmen included a drastic difference in their appearance, mental state, and how their disease tortured them as they drifted between life and death.

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.

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

At the bottom of the Missouri's streams lives the Lampsilis siliquoidea mussels where it lives out its life cycle. How it lives it's brilliant life cycle is first by luring a smallmouth bass over to it by copycatting the movement and the appearance of a Tartars fish tail which is actually the skin of the mussels which has over time evolved. Once the bass notices the lure and strikes the lure the muscle spews out a white cloud into the bass's mouth and gills which happen to be thousands of larvaes where they will live off the bass for nutrients. Its also safer for them to transition from larvae into juvenile mussels. After a couple of weeks the young mussels abandon the bass dropping leaving the basses unharmed and unaware of what happened making

Shellfish require nitrogen to grow and while growing, filter the water, improving water clarity and removing biomass (Bricker et al., 2018). Harvesting the shellfish makes the removal permanent and in the case of the blue mussel in Sweden, a 10 by 200 m by 6m deep farm grows 140 to 180 metric tons of mussels removing almost 1400 to 1800 Kilograms of Nitrogen in 18 months (Lindahl et al., 2005). This same farm can filter about 50,000 square meters of surface water over the course of a year improving water clarity (Lindahl et al., 2005). Considering that the LNB encompasses over 500 ha of water, which provides plenty of space for aquaculture without conflicts with other users. Approval for a project like a mussel farm or other shellfish would require a purpose or business plan plus a variety of permits. Aquaculturists in Long Island Sound already grow oysters, which provides the same benefits as mussels, but takes a little longer to grow. Connecticut DEEP manages the permitting process in this area, providing a single organization to work with. The nitrogen removed from a single farm would go a long way towards mitigating the 88000Kg of nitrogen added every year, see figure 1. While some challenges do exist in getting started, LNB size provides ample space for an activity like shellfish aquaculture, which would start eutrophication reduction immediately, increase water clarity and provide a usable

It was interesting to read that the hypothesis provided by the scientists turned out to be opposite of what happened to Valley Creek. The macroinvertebrates were already living in a low quality creek full of pollution, so I would have also expected their population to decrease after introducing a predator to their environment. The crayfish reminded me of the keystone species sea stars, that I learned about through a lecture on communities and ecosystems. The study conducted on crayfish was similar to a study conducted on sea stars, except they were removed from coastlines instead of being added to see the effect they had. The sea stars were believed to have a negative effect on the coastlines since they preyed on mussels, but it turned out

Grevy's Zebra is having a tough time. The Grevy's Zebra has been endangered because they are being hunted and the habitat loss. They are being hunted for their hide which shockingly dropped to 2000 Grevy’s Zebra are left in the world. Because of the large number of pets, the zebras has lost food.

Mr. Jason Dickey is an aquatic ecologist with over 15 years professional experience in the assessment of freshwater ecosystems. His Masters research focused on impairment and recovery of lakes and streams across a land use gradient in the southeastern U.S. Much of his work at Cardno has focused on the measurement of surface and groundwater, biological assessment of aquatic flora and fauna, and instream habitat surveys. Jason also specializes in federally protected aquatic species and habitat and has significant project experience with Gulf sturgeon and freshwater mussels. Jason is qualified by the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service for conducting mussel surveys in the Florida panhandle and southern Georgia and Alabama.

Picture this: School just got out for the summer and you are dying to get outside and do something fun to relax. First things first, you must pack the essentials. Food (probably more than you need), a bathing suit and of course, a fishing pole. Now, you are ready for a trip to your favorite lake. After a few hours of driving, you finally reach your destination and can’t wait to get your boat out on the water, but guess what? Upon inspection from the local DWS officer, you are sent away due to the presence of Quagga mussels on your watercraft. These miniscule invasive species have completely ruined your trip. What could you have done differently? By becoming familiar with the rules and regulations, and being educated in their growth patterns, individuals can become active participants in the

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,