Tuesday, September 18, 2012
Quagga Mussels

"

Quagga Mussels

Decades ago, the water quality of the Great Lakes was in a drastic state. Contamination was so severe, the surface of Cuyahoga River caught fire, and environmental measures to clean up the lakes came in place. Lake Erie, although the shallowest of all the Great Lakes, took decades to recover. However, Lake Erie now faces a new threat in the form of an invasive species - the quagga mussel.

The quagga mussel was first discovered in Lake Erie in September 1989, and is now distributed throughout all five Great Lakes. Dominating the Eastern basin of Lake Erie, quagga mussels are prodigious water filterers. They remove large amounts of phytoplankton and suspended particulate, taking away the food source of the zooplankton. The proliferation of the quagga mussel in the ecosystem has resulted in a momentous change of the food web. Its presence has affected water clarity, changed pH levels, possibly caused dead zones in Lake Erie and colonized water intake structures.

The long-term effects quagga mussels have on Lake Erie’s ecosystem stability are still undetermined due to the size and complexity of the Lake Erie system. Notwithstanding the situation, quagga mussels have nonetheless greatly altered the stability landscape of Lake Erie."