Zebra Mussels Research Paper

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.

     Populations of the zebra mussel, Dreissena polymorpha (Pallas), were first found in the Laurentian Great Lakes in 1988 (Hebert et al., 1989). This species is native to the Caspian, Aral, and Black Seas and the rivers that drain into them but has spread throughout Europe, principally during the 18th century. Since it is restricted to estuarine and freshwater habitats, it is presumed that it was introduced into North America by ballast waters of transoceanic vessels. Based on the substantial amount of genetic variation found in these initial populations, as estimated from electrophoretic variation of allozymes, the colonization of the Great Lakes was by a large number of immigrants and not just a few founders

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

Producing long and hair-like filaments, Lyngbya normally grows in dense mats at the bottoms of nutrient-enriched lakes and spring-fed systems. These mats produce gasses during photosynthesis that often cause the mats to rise to the surface where they can grow to several acres in size. Winds push the mats causing them to pile up against shorelines and in channels making navigation difficult and decreasing sunlight for the native species. In some areas, the algae bloom covers so much of the pre-existing vegetation that it smothers eelgrass, a preferred food of the endangered West Indian manatee. Reduced water clarity and extreme fluctuations in oxygen stress every part of the ecosystem and as a result, tiny essential, life-sustaining micro-organisms that feed on native vegetation are severely reduced, and so are the fish, turtles, manatees and other wildlife that feed on them. The birds and larger animals that feed on smaller animals must find new, more plentiful

Today’s eastern oysters range from 3 to 5 inches in length, sometimes as much as 8 inches, although the oysters present during the colonization of the New World were documented to grow much larger (“Oyster History”). Oysters have many great characteristics in regard to their utility for humans as well as wildlife. The build ups of oyster bars, reefs, and beds provide habitat for many aquatic lifeforms and the filtration capabilities they possess is quite remarkable; as filter feeders, oysters feed on phytoplankton and small organisms while removing nutrients from the waters the inhabit, leaving them clear and pristine; just one oyster can filter more than 50 gallons in a day (“Oyster History”). Alas, it was a palatable constitution that made the eastern oyster so popular, creating an extensive economy based on its harvest. Unfortunately, this considerable popularity would ultimately bring the oyster’s

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.

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

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

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.

They have been known to grow very large, and can tolerate an extremely wide range of water quality and weather conditions. They consume large amounts of vegetation/plankton, negatively affecting the aquatic vegetation. In addition, they can increase the phosphorus levels, harming the water quality in the area of water.

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,

The Eurasian Watermilfoil or Myriophyllum spicatum is native to Europe, Asia, and North Africa1. It came to the U.S, New England circa 1880-1940 and most likely came over seas by the aquarium trade or when people were traveling by ship1. It was first found in Maine in 2003 in a small body of water3. This species can be found pretty much all over the U.S but specifically it is found in wet marshy areas2. The Eurasian Watermilfoil is an aquatic plant and is devastating to the ecosystem. This plant spreads by creating fruits with nuts that can get eaten by animals and by having the nuts just fall from the plant. It also spreads by dropping parts of the stem that can regrow into new plants2. The way the plant populates makes it very thick when