[Caitlin]

MILBROOK ROUND TABLE.COM By Mitchell Trinka, Staff Reporter

After discussing the grant David Strayer received, the article goes on to discuss the problems he is studying:

According to David Strayer, a freshwater ecologist at IES, who authored the grant proposal earlier this year, ...................
they will be able to do their research, which includes looking at the age structure of current mussel populations. He said mussel populations have been dwindling and it turns out they have not been reproducing much since the 1950s. He said the prospects are pretty bad for any population that doesn't reproduce for that long.

Strayer will examine two different hypotheses regarding the lack of reproduction in populations of concern, relative to other populations that are doing just fine. He said one answer could be the voracious invasive crayfish species that he believes could be eating all the mussel offspring. He said nitrogen levels in river sediment could also be to blame, poisoning mussel babies before they finish even 3-4 years of growth.

"We're bathing the world in nitrogen right now," said Strayer.

for the rest of this article follow link to the Millbrook Roundtable.com above.

I am so sad that too many Americans are oblivious to the marvelous American mussels and what their loss means in terms of river water health -let alone the most colorful freshwater pearls in the world.