Freshwater mussel Survey of the Wakarusa River basin, Kansas' By Jeremy S' Tiemann Transactions of t

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Freshwater mussel Survey of the Wakarusa River
basin, Kansas. By Jeremy S. TiemannTransactions
of the Kansas Academy of Science109.3-4 (Fall
2006) p221(10)

• Presented by

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Abstract

• Over sixty years has passed since the last survey
  of the Wakarusa river basin. Even though the
  basin has been through many changes such as the
  construction of the Clinton Reservoir. The
  current survey was taken in 52 hours in 28 sites
  within the Wakarusa river. The searchers found
  about 39 live individuals and the valves of four
  species.

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Review of the literature

• Last extensive freshwater mussels study of the
  Wakarusa river was in 1940s (Franzen and Leonard
  1943)
• Nearly two-thirds of 300 species indigenous
  species in North America are extinct, endangered,
  threatened, or are in need of conservation.
  (Williams et al. 1993)
• Freshwater mussels are vital to stream
  ecosystems sensitivity to stream habitats and
  filter-feeding habits make them good biological
  indicators of stream integrity. (Strayer and
  Smith 2003)

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Problem/hypothesis

• Problem The Wakarusa river basin has not been
  surveyed for several years and the condition of
  the river is unknown.
• Hypothesis The researcher believed the drastic
  changes done to the river basin would cause a
  decrease in the number of live mussels found.

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Methods and Materials

• Location Wakarusa river basin, Kansas
• Methods of collection
• After the catching of the mussels

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Results

• Number of mussels and valves collected
• 39 live mussels
• nine species
• most common Quadrala quadrala
• valves of four species were found

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Discussion

• Low numbers of live individuals and poor
  condition of valves could prove the Wakarusa
  river is in bad shape
• Two-thirds of the previously known 25 species in
  the Kansas river are extirpated or are in danger
  of extirpation.

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Conclusion

• The hypothesis that the number of live mussels
  would decrease was correct. The author believes,
  that perhaps the Wakarusa river basin was never a
  suitable habitat for the freshwater mussels.
  There should be more surveys done in this area in
  more depth such as searching in more areas and
  going into deeper waters to find how the
  ecosystem has changed since times past.

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Any Questions?