A concerning discovery in a Wisconsin lake this summer shows how invasive species can damage ecosystems without being discovered for long periods.
What's happening?
Native to Ukraine, the quagga mussel was first found in the United States in 1989, in Lake Erie of the Great Lakes. It has since spread to the Upper Midwest and Southwest and was detected in Geneva Lake this summer, as Wisconsin Public Radio reported.
Similar to zebra mussels — another invasive species that is wreaking havoc on bodies of water in a wider range of North America — the quagga mussel is the size of a thumbnail. It can be distinguished from the zebra mussel by a rounded angle and convex ventral side.
"We did date a few of those, or age a few of the quagga mussels, and the ones that have looked at a little more closely are around two or three years old, so they've been there, but we just haven't detected it until this year," Amy Kretlow of the state Department of Natural Resources told WPR.
Why is this important?
Invasive species cost the United States $20 billion annually in lost resources and mitigation efforts.
In this case, the mussels threaten the food web by feeding on phytoplankton and growing on the shells of native mussels. The quaggas are also keen on soft-bottom lakes, which is bad news for the state's inland lakes, as WPR reported. They can even promote algae growth.
"In effect, what they do is they will undermine the basis of the food web, and that can have impacts on fisheries," Jake Vander Zanden of the University of Wisconsin-Madison Center for Limnology told the outlet.
What's being done about the mussels?
The most important thing people can do to prevent invasive marine life from spreading is to clean, drain, and dry their boats. That's because quagga mussels and other organisms make their way into bilge water and livewells, and they reproduce prolifically when they are transported to new areas.
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In general, we can take small steps to reduce such risks in the long term. The rising global temperature driven by our consumption of dirty energy sources allows invasive species, as well as disease-carrying pests such as mosquitoes and ticks, to expand their ranges.
You can help by trading gas-powered car trips for public transit, cycling, and walking, installing solar panels or signing up for community solar, and even just switching to LED bulbs and unplugging "energy vampires."
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