Mapping the spatial distribution of the biomass and filter-feeding effect of invasive dreissenid mussels on the winter-spring phytoplankton bloom in Lake Michigan

摘要

1. The effects of the invasive bivalves Dreissena polymorpha (zebra mussel) and Dreissena rostriformis bugensis (quagga mussel) on aquatic ecosystems, including Lake Michigan, are a topic of current interest to scientists and resource managers. We hypothesised that the winter-spring phytoplankton bloom in Lake Michigan is reduced at locations where the fraction of the water column cleared per day by Dreissena filter feeding approached the net growth rate of phytoplankton, when the water column was not stratified. To test this hypothesis, we compared the spatial distribution of Dreissena filter-feeding intensity (determined from geostatistical modelling) to the spatial distribution of chlorophyll (determined from satellite remote sensing).