Loewen, M. R., P. Cozzi, Department of Mechanical Engineering,  University of Toronto, P. F. Hamblin,  Aquatic Ecosystems Restoration Branch, National Water Research Institute,  J. D. Ackerman, Environmental Studies Programme,  University of Northern British Columbia, 1995.    Field Experiments Investigating the Benthic Pelagic Coupling Over a Zebra Mussel Bed in the Western Basin of Lake Erie

Proceedings of The Fifth International Zebra Mussel and Other Aquatic Nuisance Organisms Conference, Toronto, Canada, February 1995

Field Experiments Investigating the Benthic Pelagic Coupling Over a Zebra Mussel Bed in the Western Basin of Lake Erie

INTRODUCTION:
Zebra mussels (Dreissena spp.) have achieved such high population densities that they have been implicated in the diminution of phytoplankton standing stocks and the clarification of North American lakes (Hebert et al. 1991; Leach, 1993). There has been considerable interest in the ability of these bivalves to filter seston in laboratory and field experiments where clearance rates vary between 2 to 287 ml per mussel per hour (e.g., Kryger and Riisgard 1988; Sprung and Rose 1988; Reeders et al. 1989). Much of the recent data obtained in North American laboratories is consistent with these observations, which has lead to the aforementioned fear that there will be an alteration of the pelagic ecosystems (cf. Holland, 1993) along with concomitant changes in important fisheries (e.g., Leach, 1993). While there are few data that can bear directly on these issues in freshwater systems (Huttula, 1992), recent work on marine mussels suggests that the physical mixing and related delivery of plankton and its utilization by the mussels is of primary importance to these concerns (Wildish and Kristmanson, 1984; Frechette et al., 1989; Wildish and Kristmanson, 1993). Unfortunately unlike the relatively-well understood unidirectional tidal flows in coastal marine environments, mixing in freshwater lakes is likely to be primarily wind driven and intermittent (Fischer et al., 1979). Moreover, recent data indicates that flow rate affects zebra mussel filter feeding in a ramp-like manner not predicted by conventional static-flow models (Ackerman, 1994; in review). Both of these outcomes indicate that direct measurements of the physical transport processes and the resultant biology of filter feeding must be made in situ to begin to understand the impact of zebra mussels on the pelagic foodwebs. The purpose of the following paper is to report the results of a preliminary study of the biophysical factors that relate to the benthic-pelagic coupling in a zebra mussel bed within the western basin of Lake Erie.

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Keywords: Ecological_interactions, Zebra_mussel
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