The 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.

     Their success in spreading rapidly and colonizing new areas is due to two features of zebra mussel biology. Firstly, zebra mussels produce large numbers (> 30,000 per female) of planktotrophic veliger larvae which can survive for 10-15 days (Hebert et al., 1989). Such larvae are well suited for efficient dispersal by water currents, especially in riverine systems. Additionally, they don’t require the presence of suitable host species of fish, as do native unionid larvae. Secondly, the spread of zebra mussels is aided by their ability to attach to objects by byssal threads (the same ability that leads to their fouling problems). Because of this ability, adult zebra mussels can attach to and be spread by ships,

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.

Some people may claim that zebra mussels are not a widespread threat. They may argue that the species affects only a small area. However, a disruption of a food chain is a major threat to all the animals-and people-in the environment.

Species have been invading the Great Lakes for a very long time. “Scientists estimate that there are more than 185 invasive species in the Great Lakes today.” One of the species that invade the Great Lakes is the Round Goby. This animal usually feeds on fish eggs, Yellow Perch, Bass, and Walleye. The Round Goby is an invasive species because it kills other species, or it can make them extinct. Another example of invasive specie is Quagga Mussel. The Quagga Mussel usually sits in lakes or oceans, building up over a long period of time, this leads to millions, and millions

They will be seen in quiet waters that feature mud at the bottom. They will also be found near the Cumberland Valley in Pennsylvania and Maryland. They could rarely be found in Tennessee and Kentucky. They could be found in rivers that feature mud at the bottom because they could hibernate there.

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

I never imagined they would be using a fish and other smallmouth basses to spread their younglings. What surprised me the most about these different mussels was how much they have evolved into the different ways they disrupted their youngs. For example the Higgins eye pearlymussel has flaps that represent a minnows in their appearance and the mussels move this flap imitating the tail movement of the minnow. Then the fishes will bite down on the flap making the mussels distribute their larvae into their gills. Others will take a less freeloading approach and use their tongue like a foot moving up riverbanks where they spread their larvae making this approach less about waiting for a host but will not guarantee that most of the larvae will survive until youthhood. I think personally the best way for these creatures to repopulate is to use the method that the fish snapper use which I think happens to be the most riskiest too. As I explained before in the early paragraph the snapper will display its flesh and snapping its mouth closed onto the head of the fish force feeding its larvae into the mouth of the fish. Overall I thought that this was a very interesting article that brought attention to how mussels repopulate in different

The Grevy’s Zebra has about 2000 zebras left due to the hunting for their fur. They live mostly in Kenya. Many habitats have been extinct because of the habitat loss. The hunters use their fur and sell it for clothing and many more stuff.

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,

There are so many threatened and endangered animals throughout the world. The first animal, however, that popped into my mind when we first started talking about this research paper was the zebra. I absolutely love zebras. They are so majestic and unique. I’ve always wanted to go to Africa and travel on a safari and take pictures of them up close and personal while they are in their natural habitat. Grevy’s zebras, particularly, are one of the three different species of zebras in the world and they are the largest (AboutGrevy’sZebra). They are beautiful creatures that originally lived in the semi-arid grasslands and savannahs in East Africa. Zebras are well known for their black and white stripes that are as unique as a human fingerprint.

centuries. Zebra Mussels are small, about the size of a dime. With a razor edged shell at the top of the mussels that are known to cut into feet if they are stepped on. (NOBANIS –Invasive Alien Species Fact Sheet) They originated from Eastern Europe and Western Asia, but was accidentally introduced into North America in 1985 to 1986. The small mussels were carried on commercial ships traveling from Europe to America and readily infected the waterways with the mussels (Zebra Mussel: The Unrelenting Spread in Kansas) So far in North America, Zebra mussels have infected 48 states, including Kansas and they continue to spread through the nation.

Mussels do have one foot, which allows them to anchor into sediment or crawl along slowly (generally inches to feet a day at most). Unlike oysters or clams, freshwater mussels have a unique life cycle that depends on a parasitic relationship with a host fish. It is this relationship that allows mussels to spread throughout a river network. Female mussels release mussel larvae (called glochidia) which must attach to the gills of a suitable host where they will grow and develop for several weeks before dropping off of the fish as juvenile mussels. Many mussel species have evolved intricate methods to attract the appropriate fish host to ensure successful attachment of glochidia. These methods range from displaying elaborate lures that mimic fish, to developing packages of glochidia that resemble fish food, to physically capturing the unsuspecting fish host long enough to infest the fish with glochidia. These adaptations are next to impossible to observe in the wild without a snorkel, scuba gear, and/or lots of time and the expertise on when and where to look, but the curious can check out the array of videos online (http://molluskconservation.org/MUSSELS/Adaptation.html). As they grow, mussels can keep a record of the water chemistry and environmental conditions in their shells. Like trees, mussels develop rings as they grow. The size of each grow ring can show