The zebra mussel was first detected in the Great Lakes in 1986 and by 2010, had colonized a total of 729 inland lakes, reservoirs, impoundments, and quarries across the USA and Canada. The zebra mussel ( Dreissena polymorpha) and the related quagga mussel ( Dreissena rostriformis bugensis) are among the most aggressive invaders of freshwater habitats in the northern hemisphere, sometimes reaching densities >10 000 ind. The spread of invasive Dreissena mussels across North America is a matter of concern. Any opinions, findings, conclusions, or recommendations expressed in the publication are those of the author(s) and do not necessarily reflect the view of the NIFA or USDA.Ĭompeting interests: The authors have declared that no competing interests exist. This is an open access article distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution License, which permits unrestricted use, distribution, and reproduction in any medium, provided the original author and source are credited.ĭata Availability: All relevant data are within the paper.įunding: This research was supported by the Provincial Natural Science Foundation of Anhui and Guangdong (No.1608085MD85 2016A030313103) and the National Natural Science Foundation of China (No.31570456) with additional support from the Cornell University Agricultural Experiment Station federal formula funds, Project No NYC 147453 received from the National Institute of Food and Agriculture (NIFA) United States Department of Agriculture (USDA).

Received: JAccepted: DecemPublished: December 22, 2016Ĭopyright: © 2016 Mei et al. PLoS ONE 11(12):Įditor: Elena Gorokhova, Stockholm University, SWEDEN These results confirm the strong effect of both mussel species on water clarity and indicate that the displacement of zebra mussel by an equivalent biomass of quagga mussel is not likely to lead to further increases in water clarity, at least for the limnological conditions, including summer temperature, tested in this experiment.Ĭitation: Mei X, Zhang X, Kassam S-S, Rudstam LG (2016) Will the Displacement of Zebra Mussels by Quagga Mussels Increase Water Clarity in Shallow Lakes during Summer? Results from a Mesocosm Experiment. Importantly, there was no significant difference in nutrient (TP, soluble reactive phosphorus and NO 3 -) levels, TSS, phytoplankton Chl a, benthic algal Chl a, or light intensity on the sediment surface between ZM, QM and ZQ treatments. There was no increase in benthic algae biomass in the mussel treatments compared with the no-mussel controls.

Light intensity at the sediment surface was higher in all three mussel treatments than in the no-mussel controls but there was no difference among the mussel treatments. Total suspended solids (TSS) was reduced in ZM and ZQ treatments. We found that the presence of zebra mussels alone (ZM), quagga mussels alone (QM), or an equal number of both species (ZQ) reduced total phosphorus (TP) and phytoplankton Chl a. In this study, an eight-week mesocosm experiment was conducted to test the hypothesis that the displacement of zebra mussels by quagga mussels leads to further decreases in phytoplankton and increases in water clarity resulting in increases in benthic algae. rostriformis bugensis) have displaced zebra mussels in many ecosystems including shallow lakes such as Oneida Lake, New York. During the last decade, the conspecific quagga mussels ( D. Zebra mussels ( Dreissena polymorpha) are known to increase water clarity and affect ecosystem processes in invaded lakes.

Pictures of zebra mussels