What is the zebra mussel population?
Zebra mussel densities were as high as 700,000/m2 at one power plant in Michigan and the diameters of pipes have been reduced by two-thirds at water treatment facilities.
How many zebra mussels are produced each year?
1 million each
An adult female zebra mussel can produce 30,000 to 40,000 eggs in each reproductive cycle, and over 1 million each year. Free-swimming microscopic larvae, called veligers, drift in the water for several weeks and then settle onto any hard surface they can find.
Where are zebra mussels most commonly found?
Caspian Sea
Zebra mussels (Dreissena polymorpha) are native to the Caspian Sea in Asia. They entered the Great Lakes Region via ballast water of a transatlantic vessel in the late 1980s. Within 10 years, these mussels colonized the river basins of the Great Lakes, Mississippi, Tennessee, Hudson, and Ohio.
How many zebra mussels are in the Great Lakes?
There are now more than 950 trillion quaggas on the lake bottom — about a half-billion pounds of the fingernail sized-mollusks, according to government data. Fahnenstiel and other Great Lakes experts have said the foreign mollusks are effectively sucking the life out of Lake Michigan and Lake Huron.
How can we reduce the population of zebra mussels?
Help stop the spread of zebra mussels
- Inspect boat, trailer, and other recreational equipment that have been in contact with water.
- Remove all mud, plants, or animals.
- Drain all bilge water, live wells, bait buckets, and all other water from your boat, engine and equipment.
How often do zebra mussels reproduce?
Zebra mussels have an extremely high reproductive rate of 30,000-1,000,000 new mussels per year and are able to reproduce at one year of age.
How many states have zebra mussels?
They have spread rapidly throughout the Great Lakes region and into the large rivers of the eastern Mississippi drainage. They have also been found in Texas, Colorado, Utah, Nevada, and California. Zebra mussels negatively impact ecosystems in many ways.
Which Great lake has the most zebra mussels?
Lake Michigan
Zebras also feed only during the warmer months, while quaggas filter nutrients out of the water year-round. Three years after quagga mussels were discovered in Lake Michigan, zebra mussels still made up more than 98% of the lake’s invasive mussel population.
What are zebra mussels?
Zebra mussels are an invasive, fingernail-sized mollusk that is native to fresh waters in Eurasia. Their name comes from the dark, zig-zagged stripes on each shell. Zebra mussels probably arrived in the Great Lakes in the 1980s via ballast water that was discharged by large ships from Europe.
What is the ecology of the zebra mussel (Dreissena polymorpha)?
The ecology of the zebra mussel ( Dreissena polymorpha) in the Lower Great Lakes of North America: I. Population dynamics and growth. –121. . Longitudinal patterns in abundance of the zebra mussel ( Dreissena polymorpha) in the Upper Mississippi River.
Why are zebra mussels endangered?
Many native mussel populations have decreased to the point of being threatened or endangered, because they are out-competed by the zebra mussels. Other animals, including fish like shad (at left) and herring that live in the open water, have also suffered.
How did the zebra mussels get to the Great Lakes?
Zebra mussels probably arrived in the Great Lakes in the 1980s via ballast water that was discharged by large ships from Europe. They have spread rapidly throughout the Great Lakes region and into the large rivers of the eastern Mississippi drainage.