Zebra Mussels

Academic Research >>



In the future of this website, I hope that this page will expand the most. More research about zebra mussels is always good, and the more this information can reach the people, the better.

History

Zebra Mussels' free-swimming larvae (called “veligers”) arrived via ballast from commercial ships. This ballast is composed of water, stones, plants and sediment taken up by the ship somewhere in its journeys to stabilize the vessel during travel without heavy loads; it is discharged elsewhere along with any organisms associated with the ballast as the ship is loaded with cargo. The mussels are from the Black and Caspian seas, and the Sea of Azov, but they have invaded many Russian and European waterways within the last 200 years. They first arrived in the United States in the 1980s. The Great Lakes were the first to be invaded and the mussels quickly spread along shipping routes and waterways (Cibowarski 205).

Mollusks

Zebra mussels (Dreissena polymorpha) are bivalve mollusks approximately 1 to 5 cm long that live in freshwater lakes. They siphon and filter phytoplankton and organic sediment from water with staggering efficiency, and have the ability to permanently attach to hard substrates (Ciborwarski 205). 

The life span of a zebra mussel is four to five years. A female zebra mussel begins to reproduce within 6–7 weeks of settling.

An adult female zebra mussel can produce 30,000 to 40,000 eggs in each reproductive cycle, and over 1 million each year. Free-swimming microscopic larvae, called veligers, will drift in the water for several weeks and then settle onto any hard surface they can find. Zebra mussels also can tolerate a wide range of environmental conditions and adults can even survive out of water for about 7 days ("Zebra Mussel FAQ").

Spread

As is clear from this map that Zebra Mussels have rapidly spread throughout the waterways of the United States. The US Geological Society has tracked sightings over the past 30 years and their impact continues to grow.