Quagga Mussels Confirmed "Lakewide" In Mead: Remains Of Colorado River Ecosystem Wait For The End

[hatrack]

EDIT

At Lake Mead, a deep, narrow reservoir hundreds of miles long created by the Hoover Dam, quaggas appear well on the way to taking over. “Within a year of discovery, it was apparent that they were lakewide, and in areas they were really numerous,” said Kent Turner, chief of resource management for the park service at the recreation area. Sampling the lake bottom has found mussel concentrations in the thousands per square meter, he said.

Like the zebra, the quagga breeds externally, forming clouds of veligers, microscopic, free-swimming larvae that can float up to five weeks before settling on any surface that strikes their fancy. By riding the current, quagga veligers have floated hundreds of miles downstream. Adult mussels have been found as far south as the Imperial Dam, near the Mexican border.

EDIT


More alarming to some experts are the potential ecological effects. Dr. Fahnenstiel called the mussels’ explosive growth the most significant ecological disruption in modern Great Lakes history. “It’s a huge perturbation,” he said. “I don’t think that can be understated.” In Lake Michigan, fish populations have plummeted as quaggas strip the water of nutrients. “The fish are taking a hit because there’s no food for them,” said Tom Nalepa, a research biologist with the Great Lakes laboratory. “All the food is being sucked out by the mussels. What we’re seeing is the replacement of the fish by the mussels.”

By filtering the water, quaggas can increase clarity, letting in sunlight that leads to algae blooms and explosive weed growth. That can, in turn, result in oxygen-starved “dead zones,” observed recently in Lake Erie. By accumulating toxins filtered from the water, the mussels have also contributed to botulism. “In the Great Lakes, we’ve seen avian botulism go through the roof,” Dr. Fahnenstiel said. “We’ve had huge die-offs of loons, which are one of the most beloved species here.”

EDIT

http://www.nytimes.com/2008/06/17/science/17muss.html?_r=1&oref=slogin

[phantom power]

1. Oh shit.

[hatrack]

2. Yeah, those voluntary mussel-control programs really worked, didn't they?

:eyes:

[phantom power]

3. People hauling their boats all over the country, bilges full of water...

it was fucking inevitable.

[hatrack]

4. Yep.

Call me crazy, but I have this wild hunch that there won't be nearly as much fishing on the reservoirs in the future as there is today . . .

[dbackjon]

5. But introduced species NEVER cause any harm

And should be left alone.

Maybe we can do catch, neuter and release programs with the quagga. It is the only humane solution, you know.

[XemaSab]

7. Those poor quagga mussels don't deserve to be cruelly slaughtered

The remaining species will just have to learn to adapt. Hell, they probably already HAVE adapted.

I mean, probably if you remove the quagga mussels, the ecosystem will just spin wildly off its axis and Lake Mead will be turned into an abiotic wasteland.

You'd be removing a keystone species, and in a study they did in Kazakhstan, they removed a keystone species from this lake and NOTHING EVER GREW IN THE LAKE AGAIN. :scared:

[grasswire]

6. thank you, hatrack

...for bringing all the ecological news to us. As depressing as it is, it's still stuff I might not ever see if you didn't diligently post it here.

[kestrel91316]

8. When the Colorado River goes completely dry from global warming

the quagga mussels will all die. Nice, neat, tidy end of problem.

End of a lot else, too, but you know how these things go......