Masters Defense

Go with the flow: Hydrodynamic resilience to invasive mussels

Zebra mussels are invasive species that pose a serious threat to infrastructure and aquatic ecosystems in the Upper Mississippi River basin and across North America as they continue to spread. Previous research has mainly focused on how physiochemical characteristics such as calcium, pH, salinity, temperature, and dissolved oxygen can negatively affect mussels. However, understanding the relationships between hydrodynamic processes (current, wave action, turbulence) and biologic processes (external fertilization, larval transport and settling, and suspension feeding) provides an opportunity to identify water bodies and habitats resistant to mussel establishment. We will investigate the effect of hydrodynamic forces as potential controls for establishing invasive mussels through laboratory experiments on larval mortality and settling and adult mussel suspension feeding. The model flume will represent a small-scale version of a stream or river ecosystem. The data and relationships developed in the laboratory experiments will be verified at the field scale by comparing them to existing data and hydraulic model results. The results of this study can be used to i) identify resistant areas in water bodies and watersheds where mussels struggle to establish, ii) inform management activities to create habitats that are more resistant to mussel growth, and iii) design new control strategies that rely on managing flow and corresponding fluid and hydrologic conditions. ecosystems.