Zebra Mussels Essay

Adapted for a wide range of aquatic habitats, various shark species inhabit shallow coastal habitats, deep-water ocean floor habitats, and the open ocean. With a wide selection to feed off of, as a whole the shark species feed on just about everything. Their diet consists of fish,

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.

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.

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

As reported by the USDA (United States Department of Agriculture), Eurasian milfoil, which is native to Europe, Asia, and Northern Africa, was most likely accidentally introduced to the United States through ballast water, which is water from other places that is dumped into another body of water to aid in

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

In the U.S., bull sharks are found in the Atlantic Ocean from Massachusetts to the Gulf of Mexico and in the Pacific Ocean off the coast of

Their scientific name is Equus Grevyi. They weigh 770 to 990 pounds and around 50 to 60 inches from the shoulder. The zebras lives in the Grasslands and the Savannas and can live

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

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.

First of all, these shellfish get their name from the Zebra like stripes that cover its “D shape” shell. It is approximately two inches or less in length and have “sticky byssal threads that they use to attach tightly to any hard surface” (3.). When it comes times for them to reproduce, the female may produce up to 500,000 eggs in a single year. These eggs eventually develop into a small microscopic larva that will ultimately begin to form their own shells. These Zebra Mussels first landed on the map in the late 1980’s by hitching rides in the ballast waters of cargo ships. First they started showing themselves in the great lakes and from there they spread.

Sharks are one of the most feared carnivores in the sea. There are 365 species of of sharks in the sea as we know today. All sharks are carnivores. Most of them eat live fish, including other sharks. A shark's most common natural enemy is an another shark. Most sharks eat their prey whole, or they tear off large chunks of the bodies. Some sharks crush their prey. Others take out small pieces off flesh from large fish. Sharks also feed on dead or dying animals. Sharks have the reputation of attacking human beings. But less than 100 shark attacks a year are reported throughout the world. Sharks are most common in warm seas and oceans. Whale sharks, are the largest shark known to man. Sharks are classified in the order