Invasion
Invasion Description
1st Record: Ontario/Lake St. Clair, southern portion on the lake (1988, USGS Nonindigenous Aquatic species program 2012)
Geographic Extent
Ontario/Lake St. Clair, southern portion on the lake (1988, USGS Nonindigenous Aquatic species program 2012)
Vectors
| Level | Vector |
|---|---|
| Probable | Ballast Water |
Regional Impacts
| Ecological Impact | Habitat Change | |
| After the invasion of Lake St. Clair, the abundance and diversity of macrobenthos increased. Water clarity increased, and macrophytes (Potamogeton sp., Vallisneria americana, and Elodea canadensis), and filamentous algae became abundant (Griffiths 1992). | ||
| Economic Impact | Health | |
| The city of Windsor, Ontario, spent between $CAN 400,000–450,000 on charcoal filtration of water from Lake St. Clair, to control taste and odor problems after the Zebra Mussel invasion (Colautti et al. 2006). | ||
| Ecological Impact | Food/Prey | |
| Round Gobies (Neogobius melanostomus) in the Detroit River fed largely on Zebra Mussels. The size and numbers of mussels eaten were proportional to the length of the fish (Ray and Corkum 1997). | ||
| Ecological Impact | Competition | |
| In Lake St. Clair, fouling of native unionid mussels by Zebra Mussels has caused an estimated 97% decline in abundance (Schloesser et al. 1996; Ricciardi et al.1998). | ||
References
Griffiths, Ronald W. (1992) Effects of zebra mussels (Dreissena polymorpha) on the benthic fauna of Lake St. Clair., In: Nalepa, Thomas F.//Schloesser, Donald W.(Eds.) Zebra Mussels: Biology, Impacts, and Control. , Boca Raton, FL. Pp. 415-437Mackie, Gerald L. (1993) Biology of the zebra mussel (Dreissena polymorpha) and observations of mussel colonization on unionid bivalves in Lake St. Clair of the Great Lakes., In: Nalepa, Thomas F., and Schloesser, Donald W.(Eds.) Zebra Mussels: Biology, Impacts, and Control.. , Boca Raton, FL. Pp. 153-165
Mills, Edward L.; Leach, Joseph H.; Carlton, James T.; Secor, Carol L. (1993) Exotic species in the Great Lakes: a history of biotic crises and anthropogenic introductions., Journal of Great Lakes Research 19(1): 1-54
Ricciardi, Anthony, Neves, Richard J., Rasmussen, Joseph B. (1998) Impending extinctions of North Americam freshwater mussels (Unionoida) following the zebra mussel (Dreissena polymorpha) invasion, Journal of Animal Ecology 67: 613-619
Schloesser, Don W.; Nalepa, Thomas F.; Mackie, Gerald L. (1996) Zebra mussel infestation of unionid bivalves (Unionidae) in North America, American Zoologist 36: 300-310
2003-2022 Nonindigenous Aquatic Species Database. Gainesville, FL. http://nas.er.usgs.gov