Integrating freshwater mussel and watershed health monitoring data could enhance watershed restoration
Freshwater mussels are central to the health of river ecosystems because they provide many benefits such filtering water, recycling nutrients, and forming habitat for other species. In turn, these benefits help support other aquatic species that co-exist alongside freshwater mussels. However, the effects of human activities such as changes in land-use and the channelization of streams has directly contributed to the decline of river ecosystems, including freshwater mussels.
Read this open access paper on the FACETS website.
In Canada, the conservation of imperiled freshwater mussel species has focused on key regions with healthy populations, such as the Sydenham River in Nayaano-nibiimaang Gichigamiin/ the Laurentian Great Lakes Basin. At the same time, conservation authorities monitor watershed health through assessing benthic macroinvertebrate communities. However, these activities have often taken place independently, with information about imperiled mussel species being considered separately from other information about the condition of the watersheds and habitats they live in.
To address this gap between species conservation and watershed management, we compiled federal mussel monitoring results and local macroinvertebrate data to explore which mussel species were found together and how that matched patterns in macroinvertebrate communities. We did this by analysing recent mussel records for the Sydenham River and adding our own field survey investigating both mussel and macroinvertebrates at the same sites.
We found significant differences between mussel communities between when imperiled species were present and when they were not. Sites where imperiled species were found often also had many other mussel species present. This suggests that which species are found together matters for conserving mussels. Benthic macroinvertebrate diversity metrics (e.g., family richness, %EPT) and specific indicator taxa were strong predictors of mussel species richness and the presence of imperiled mussel species. Together, this suggests that mussel communities could provide information about imperiled species occurrence and that monitoring benthic macroinvertebrate diversity has practical applications for mussel conservation.
Overall, the relationships found between imperiled mussel species, other mussel species, and macroinvertebrates support further integrating aquatic ecosystem management. Better understanding these ecological relationships also has strong potential to help guide conservation and restoration actions by giving meaning to changes observed in faster growing species groups.
Read the paper One informs the other: Unionid species at risk and benthic macroinvertebrate community monitoring data are complementary — by Roland A. Eveleens, Todd J. Morris, Daelyn A. Woolnough, and Catherine M. Febria.
