Zebra Research Paper

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

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

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

Invasive species are organisms that harm a new environment that they are not native to. Many invasive species like Eurasian milfoil are easily able to reproduce and can do so fast. Due to this, the limited space in a body of water or area of land is quickly taken over by the invasive species so other native plants face the risk of death or even extinction. Overall, these invasive species can do great harm to an ecosystem or an economy, causing problems that are destructive to numerous organisms.

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.

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

An invasive species is a plant, fungus, or animal species that is not native to a specific location and one point should be noticed is that invasive species does not have to come from another country. For example, lake trout are native to the Great Lakes, but are considered to be an invasive species in Yellowstone Lake because they compete with native cutthroat trout for habitat. Although there are some invasive species arrive with spread and establish populations, like the native butterflies feed on non-native plants in California, the alien trees help restore abandoned pastures to a condition suitable for native plants in Puerto Rico and even the much-maligned zebra mussel helps filter toxins from great lakes, most policymakers regard invasive

Zebra Mussels, by the 19th century, managed to spread to almost all of the major drainage ways of Europe. In 1824, these treacherous organisms emerged in Great Britain. Where, even to this day, they are well established. Nevertheless, when the mussels made their way by ship into the great lakes, it was in a body of water connecting Lake Huron and Lake Erie, also known as Lake St. Clair. Lake St. Clair is Canadian waters and it is presumed that is where these mussels first entered into the United states’ waters. From the great lakes, they moved to the Hudson and Illinois rivers. The mussels invasion of the Illinois river was a major landmark in their spread. Because from the Illinois, they managed to get into the Mississippi river and then so on into the 10 states that border 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,

water? Adult dreissena polymorphazebra, also known as zebra mussels, can grow to 1/4 to 1-1/2 inches long and have D-shaped shells, they often have alternating yellow and brownish colored stripes. (Department of Natural Recources) These mussels arrived in the United States through ballast water in ships and have slowly spread throughout the freshwater lakes, since then they have known to become an invasive species, and raise questions about how and whether we should stop them or not.

Overall, this article provides a very large variety of useful information. At the beginning of the article, it gives a detailed summary pertaining to the origin of the zebra mussel and how one can properly identify it. Since 1824, zebra mussels have spread exponentially. Originally from the Black Sea, these mollusks traveled into Western Europe by “hitchhiking” into the ballast tanks of large ocean-going vessels. Eventually in 1988, the zebra mussel was found in the United States (Lake Erie). Due to the Great Lakes

North America is home to approximately 300 species of mussels; however approximately 70% of these species are extinct, endangered, or otherwise of special concern. Mussel population decline cannot be attributed to a single factor, but rather a combination of often interacting factors from land use change (e.g. water quality degradation, habitat loss, altered streamflow, and sedimentation), direct channel modification (e.g. dam building), host fish availability (more on this later), and invasive species impacts (e.g. predation and zebra mussel infestation). Because mussels are long lived (some species can live 50 + years), relatively sedentary, and have a complicated life cycle that requires suitable host fish populations, they are often used as indicators of river ecosystem wellbeing. A kind of “canary in the coalmine” organism, mussel response to environmental conditions can signify an early warning for a degraded ecosystem. In fact, instrumented mussels are being used as biomonitors for water quality. Mussels are filter feeders, and they have the ability to close their shells for a period of time when a contaminant is present. By monitoring mussel gape (i.e the rate which they open and close their shells), water resource managers can tell, for example if all mussels close up quickly, that there is likely potentially harmful

RESEARCH PAPER: CATERPILLAR Abstract The topic of my research was the global management expertise and effectiveness of the company Caterpillar Inc., a global leader in the production and manufacturing of construction and mining equipment. I researched the company's website for core information and sought information outside the company for its global perspective. What I found