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Quaggas in Lake Mead being fruitful, expert says; Invasive mussels finding favorable temperatures, nutrients, water

Posted by: Aqua Blog Maven on June 25, 2009 at 6:52 am

From the Las Vegas Review Journal:

The number is 3 trillion and counting. That’s how many quagga mussels scientists think have invaded Lake Mead’s Boulder Basin since they were first discovered there two years ago.

A UNLV expert on quaggas said Wednesday that the population explosion is occurring at an alarming rate at various depths down to 355 feet. They thrive best on hard surfaces based on observations in hard and soft sediments, said David Wong, an expert on the pesky mollusks who was recruited from Wisconsin to assess the problem for the university. Abundant calcium in the water and relatively warm temperatures also help fuel the population growth, he said.

That’s why government agencies including the National Park Service are teaming with the university and its research arm, Desert Research Institute, to launch a plan to track and reduce impacts from massive colonies of the fingernail-size mussels. A goal of the effort is to establish more than 50 sampling sites in the lake with results of the first studies expected in about a year, he said.

“We are going to focus on two issues: the quagga mussels themselves and their impact,” Wong said.

Read more of this story from the Las Vegas Review Journal by clicking here.

June 25, 2009 · Filed Under Las Vegas & Nevada

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