zebra mussel

KEY WORDS: freshwater mussel, zebra mussel Dreissena polymorpha, digestion, enzyme, Amhlema plicata, Lampsilis cardium

From water purification to odor management, corrosion inhibitors and even addressing the problem of zebra mussel that plagues many U.

In the case of zebra mussels, for example, Cardiff Harbour Authority is asking fishermen to wash their equipment in disinfectant to help prevent spreading the mussels' larvae.

Zebra mussels have been found as far away as Lake Mead, outside Las Vegas.

Well after Strayer's survey, two exotic bivalves, the zebra mussel (Dreissena polymorpha) and the Asian clam (Corbicula fluminea), were discovered in the watershed in the early 1990s (Janech and Hunter 1995; Hunter 1996; Hunter et al.

That's a tenth of the annual economic damage caused by the zebra mussel and its cousin, the quagga mussel.

Perhaps the most insidious threat to all freshwater mussels is the invasive zebra mussel (Dreissena polymorpha).

It comes in the shape of a highly invasive species - the zebra mussel - spotted for the first time in North Wales.

Then, there's the not-so lovable little zebra mussel.

Possible uses include a mosquito larvacide, a molluscicide to rein in the prolific zebra mussel that's fouling water supplies in the Great Lakes, and a mildew-zapping bathroom product.

Hailing from Europe's Caspian Sea, the fingernail-size zebra mussel, a mollusk with a razor-sharp black-striped shell, hit North America in 1988--via a transoceanic tanker.

Non-natives such as the New Zealand mud snail or zebra mussel have no natural enemies in California, and once established can potentially cause millions of dollars in damage and upset entire ecosystems.

In areas where native mussels have been supplanted by exotic species, such as the zebra mussel or the Asian clam, those species appear to dominate the diet of predators, which might reduce the predation pressure of muskrats on rare and endangered species.

Introduced via discharged ballast water from European freighters in the mid-1980s, zebra mussel populations have been exploding in the Great Lakes.

Factors contributing to this decline include commercial harvest, pollution, siltation (Parmalee, 1967), and the invasion of the zebra mussel, Dreissena polymorpha (Ricciardi, et al.