Freshwater mussels are mollusks-close relatives of clams, oysters, and saltwater mussels. Many species of freshwater mussels can live for 20 to 30 years, and individuals of some species live for more than 100 years. Freshwater mussels have been valued by humans throughout history. They can produce pearls, and their shells can be used to make buttons for clothing or to serve as seedstock for the...

OBJECTIVE To investigate the prevalence of trematode Aspidogastrea in the freshwater mussels in the Yangtze River basin within Anhui province, China. METHODS We initially harvested the freshwater mussels living in the Yangtze River running through Anhui area, and labeled them with corresponding number. Then the samples were dissected for isolating the flukes, which were identified by conventi...

The state of Oklahoma has designated several areas as freshwater mussel sanctuaries in an attempt to provide freshwater mussel species a degree of protection and to facilitate their reproduction. We evaluated the protection afforded freshwater mussels by the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency (U.S. EPA) hardness-based 1996 ambient copper water quality criteria, the 2007 U.S. EPA water quality...

Critical habitat is defined under Section 2 of Canada’s Species at Risk Act (SARA) as, “the habitat necessary for the survival or recovery of a listed wildlife species and that is identified as the species’ critical habitat in the recovery strategy or in an action plan for the species”. SARA requires the development of recovery strategies for species listed as Endangered, Threatened or Extirpat...

Reliable estimates of abundance are needed to assess consequences of proposed habitat restoration and enhancement projects on freshwater mussels in the Upper Mississippi River (UMR). Although there is general guidance on sampling techniques for population assessment of freshwater mussels, the actual performance of sampling designs can depend critically on the population density and spatial dist...

Ammonia toxicity data for freshwater mussels (Unionidae), a significantly imperiled taxa, were used to derive estimates of concentrations that would not likely be harmful in acute and chronic exposures and to assess the protectiveness of current U.S. Environmental Protection Agency (U.S. EPA) water quality criteria to this family of organisms. Thirty acute (24-96-h) median lethal concentrations...

Environmental gradients play an important role in shaping geographic variability in coastal marine populations. Thus, the ability of organisms to cope with these changes will depend on their potential to acclimatize, or adapt, to these new environmental conditions. We investigated the spatial variability in biological responses shown by Perumytilus purpuratus mussels collected from 2 intertidal...

Freshwater mussels (Family Unionidae) are among the most imperiled group of organisms in the world, with nearly 65% of North American species considered endangered. Anthropogenic disturbances, including altered flow regimes, habitat alteration, and pollution, are the major driver of this group's decline. We investigated the effects of tertiary treated municipal wastewater effluent on survivorsh...

Freshwater mussels are found in dense, multi-species aggregations where the potential for resource partitioning should be high. One means by which mussels may be partitioning resources is through feeding on different food items. We compared gill morphology in four species of co-occurring freshwater mussels. We found differences in total gill surface area, density of latero-frontal cirri and the...

The occurrence of freshwater harmful algal bloom toxins impacting the coastal ocean is an emerging threat, and the potential for invertebrate prey items to concentrate toxin and cause harm to human and wildlife consumers is not yet fully recognized. We examined toxin uptake and release in marine mussels for both particulate and dissolved phases of the hepatotoxin microcystin, produced by the fr...