News tagged with zebra mussels

Fighting ecological invaders efficiently

Siemens is using a special water-treatment technique to make ship traffic more environmentally friendly. By disinfecting the ballast water in ships, a system named Sicure protects marine environments from ...

Technology / Engineering

created May 11, 2012 | popularity not rated yet | comments 0

Scientists developing poison pill for Asian carp

Biologist Jon Amberg has spent the last two years obsessed with fish guts, laboring over a singular challenge: Develop a poison pill that will kill Asian carp and leave other fish unscathed.

Biology / Ecology

created Apr 03, 2012 | popularity 2.3 / 5 (4) | comments 0

Smithsonian NEMESIS tracks marine invaders online

Mitten crabs, zebra mussels and rock vomit: These and hundreds of other non-native species have invaded coastal regions throughout the United States, often causing dramatic changes to coastal ecosystems and ...

Biology / Ecology

created Mar 12, 2012 | popularity not rated yet | comments 0

Coalition releases study on cutting off Asian carp from Lake Michigan

Asian carp should be permanently cut off from Lake Michigan by sheet pile or impermeable land bridges, effectively re-reversing the flow of the Chicago River, according to a study set to be released Tuesday by a coalition ...

Space & Earth / Environment

created Feb 02, 2012 | popularity not rated yet | comments 0

Chemical-munching mussels contaminating Great Lakes

Zebra mussels from the Caspian Sea, introduced to North America by accident, are becoming a veritable plague releasing toxic chemicals into the Great Lakes, Canadian biologists say.

Space & Earth / Environment

created Oct 01, 2011 | popularity 5 / 5 (5) | comments 6

Are all alien encounters bad?

The pages of ecological history are filled with woeful tales of destruction from non-native species -- organisms that originated elsewhere.

Biology / Ecology

created Aug 30, 2011 | popularity 4 / 5 (5) | comments 12

Invisible invasive species

While Asian carp, gypsy moths and zebra mussels hog invasive-species headlines, many invisible invaders are altering ecosystems and flourishing outside of the limelight.

Biology / Ecology

created Dec 07, 2010 | popularity 4.6 / 5 (7) | comments 2 | with audio podcast

Economists weigh lost trade and costs of control against economic damages

How should a country respond to a biological invader that reaches its shores via cargo shipped as international trade?

Space & Earth / Environment

created Aug 23, 2010 | popularity 4 / 5 (1) | comments 0

Research finds low oxygen resources in Central New York's Three Rivers system

A unique three-year longitudinal and vertical study of Central New York's Three Rivers system—involving the Oswego, Oneida and Seneca rivers—has revealed that oxygen resources have become degraded by several ...

Space & Earth / Environment

created Apr 29, 2010 | popularity 4 / 5 (1) | comments 0

Invasive fish and mussels team up to transfer toxic substances into Great Lakes walleyes

(PhysOrg.com) -- Two notorious Great Lakes invaders -- the zebra mussel and the round goby -- now play a central role in transferring toxic chemicals called PCBs up the food chain and into Saginaw Bay walleyes, ...

Biology / Ecology

created Apr 09, 2010 | popularity not rated yet | comments 0

EPA, Army Corps urged to consider separating Great Lakes, river basin

The once-radical idea of somehow plugging the Chicago Sanitary and Ship Canal to stop the flow of unwanted species from spilling between the Great Lakes and Mississippi River basin is quickly picking up political support.

Space & Earth / Environment

created Dec 21, 2009 | popularity 5 / 5 (3) | comments 0

Researchers Reveal That Environmentally Devastating Zebra Mussels Can Be Controlled

Cloaked in a delicate brown and cream striped shell and measuring a mere inch in length, the zebra mussel certainly doesn’t look ominous. This tiny invasive species, however, has wreaked havoc in waterways ...

Biology / Ecology

created Dec 14, 2009 | popularity 3.3 / 5 (6) | comments 3

Asian carp raises fear and loathing on Great Lakes

(AP) -- After nearly four decades as a fishing guide on the Great Lakes, Pat Chrysler has seen enough damage from invasive species to fear what giant, ravenous Asian carp could do to the nation's largest bodies of freshwater.

Biology / Ecology

created Dec 10, 2009 | popularity not rated yet | comments 1

15,000 reasons to worry about invasive species

A day at the beach in Wisconsin's North Woods didn't used to go like this. Candy Dailey spent a Fourth of July holiday splashing with grandkids on the sandy shore of Lake Metonga when she felt a nasty sting on her foot.

Biology / Ecology

created Nov 09, 2009 | popularity 5 / 5 (4) | comments 1

NOAA announces an experimental harmful algal bloom forecast bulletin for Lake Erie

Predicting harmful algal blooms, or HABs, in the Great Lakes is now a reality as NOAA announces an experimental HAB forecast system in Lake Erie. HABs produce toxins that may pose a significant risk to human and animal health ...

Space & Earth / Environment

created Sep 17, 2009 | popularity not rated yet | comments 0

Zebra mussel

The zebra mussel, Dreissena polymorpha, is a species of small freshwater mussel, an aquatic bivalve mollusk. This species was originally native to the lakes of southeast Russia . However, it has been accidentally introduced in many other areas, and has become a problematic invasive species in many different countries.

Although zebra mussels superficially resemble marine mussels in the family Mytilidae, and like them, are attached to solid substrates with a byssus, nonetheless, zebra mussels are not at all closely related to the mytilids; they are much more closely related to the Veneridae, the venus clams.

Zebra mussels get their name from a striped pattern which is commonly seen on their shells, though not all shells bear this pattern. They are usually about the size of a fingernail, but can grow to a maximum length of nearly two inches (5 cm). The shape of the shell is also somewhat variable.

The native distribution of the species is the Black and Caspian Sea. Zebra mussels are an invasive species in North America, the British Isles, Spain, and Sweden.

For more information about Zebra mussel, read the full article at Wikipedia.
This text uses material from Wikipedia and is available under the GNU Free Documentation License.