how were zebra mussels introduced into the great lakes?
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The zebra mussel is native to Eastern Europe and Western Russia. The species was unintentionally introduced into the United States' Great Lakes through the discharge of contaminated cargo ship ballast water.
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Both Zebra and quagga mussels are native to the Black Sea in Eurasia and were introduced to Ontario in the late 1980s via ship ballast. They both have the capability to densely colonize hard and soft surfaces of lake bottoms. Quagga mussels tends to inhabit deeper waters than zebra mussels.
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Fishers were reintroduced into Pennsylvania in 1994 and, combined with populations from West Virginia, are now dispersing into western New York. Animals from both the Adirondacks and the Catskills are colonizing central New York, including the Finger Lakes forests.
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Zebra mussels first entered North America in about 1986, when foreign ships apparently dumped the larvae with ballast water into Lake St. Clair; Within six years, zebra mussels had spread to all the Great Lakes and had entered eight large river systems.
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The lakes are home to numerous fish, including species undergoing restoration efforts such as lake trout and lake sturgeon, and species that are popular in commercial or recreational fisheries, including lake whitefish, walleye, muskellunge and several introduced salmon species.
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In 1827 zebra mussels were seen in the Netherlands at Rotterdam. Canals that artificially link many European waterways facilitated their early dispersal. It is non-indigenous in the Czech Republic in Elbe river in Bohemia since 1893; in southern Moravia is probably native.
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Zebra mussels are suspension feeders, eating phytoplankton, small zooplankton, large bacteria, and organic detritus by filtering the water and straining out the edible material. Phytoplankton and zooplankton form the base of the aquatic food web, so many animals depend on them for survival.
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While there are two known zebra mussel communities in Lake Superior—in the major ports of Duluth, Minnesota, and Thunder Bay, Ontario—mussels generally have a tough go in Lake Superior because the lake is too cold and doesn't offer enough nutrients to sustain them.
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Lake floor food supplies are enriched by zebra mussels as they filter pollution out of the water. This biomass becomes available to bottom-feeding species and to the fish that feed on them.
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Zebra mussels are highly adaptable and can survive in a variety of water temperatures and conditions. ... Zebra mussels negatively impact habitats by filtering water, which removes plankton from the water. Plankton is the foundation of many food chains, including those of native fish and wildlife.
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Origin and Spread The species was unintentionally introduced into the United States' Great Lakes through the discharge of contaminated cargo ship ballast water. They were first discovered in the Great Lakes in 1988 and were first confirmed in the Duluth/Superior Harbor in 1989.
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Zebra Mussels are believed to have hitch-hiked from Europe to North America in ballast water from transoceanic ships. They were first observed in Ontario in 1988 and have spread throughout the Great Lakes, Lake St. Clair and the Mississippi River watershed.
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Zebra Mussels are believed to have hitch-hiked from Europe to North America in ballast water from transoceanic ships. They were first observed in Ontario in 1988 and have spread throughout the Great Lakes, Lake St.
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– Inland lakes in Michigan that have been invaded by zebra mussels, an exotic species that has plagued bodies of water in several states since the 1980s, have higher levels of algae that produce a toxin that can be harmful to humans and animals, according to a Michigan State University researcher.
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Successful introduction of zebra mussels into the Great Lakes probably occurred in 1985 or 1986, after transoceanic ships discharged contaminated ballast water from foreign ports into lakes St. Clair and Erie. ... Being a temperate, freshwater species, they found the plankton-rich lakes St. Clair and Erie to their liking.
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Zebra Mussels They were first discovered in the Great Lakes in 1986 in Lake St. ... In the larval stage, the mussels live freely in the water column, allowing them to be easily transported to new ecosystems via currents or ballast water.
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In 2008, zebra mussels were first reported in Maryland within the Conowingo Pool of the Susquehanna River. ... Several municipalities in the area have also began reporting clusters of zebra mussels attached to their water supply intakes or larva entering their intake pipes.