Occurrence depth of juvenile freshwater pearl mussels (Margaritifera margaritifera) in a river bed tested by experimental mesh tubes

Bílý, Michal; Simon, Ondřej P.; Barák, Vojtěch; Jahelková, Václava

doi:10.1007/s10750-020-04298-8

Cited by 10 publications

(12 citation statements)

References 28 publications

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“…Juvenile freshwater mussels have been shown to be sensitive to low concentrations of dissolved oxygen (Dimock & Wright, 1993;Sparks & Strayer, 1998). The results of the present study as well as earlier work (Sparks & Strayer, 1998;Bílý et al, 2020) suggest that juveniles move to the surface as a response for avoiding an oxygen-depleted or otherwise unsuitable habitat. This hypothesis is in accordance with studies showing adverse physiological effects of fine sediments on freshwater mussels.…”

Section: Discussionsupporting

confidence: 71%

“…Despite able to burrow into the finest sand, juveniles resurfaced after a couple of hours, suggesting that juveniles have an ability to discriminate a poor habitat from a good one. Resurfacing from an unsuitable site not only exposes juveniles to the current with the risk of becoming dislodged and being washed away, but it also gives juveniles a chance to drift to a more suitable site, as also suggested by Bílý et al (2020). Conversely, at suitable sites, it is beneficial for an individual mussel to avoid exposure to the stream current by staying burrowed.…”

Section: Discussionmentioning

confidence: 99%

“…Recently, Bílý et al (2020) showed experimentally that 1-year old M. margaritifera juveniles avoided deeper, low-oxygenated zones of the 12-cm substrate tube. Therefore, it is possible that the surfacing behaviour of M. margaritifera juveniles in fine sand in the present study was associated with decreased oxygen in fine sediment treatments.…”

Section: Discussionmentioning

confidence: 99%

“…Low oxygen, high temperature and drought have been found to cause surfacing and other stress behaviours in Unionida juveniles (Sparks & Strayer 1998;Archambault et al, 2013Archambault et al, , 2014. To our knowledge, only one study prior to ours has examined the burrowing behaviour of juvenile M. margaritifera; Bílý et al (2020) found recently that 1-year-old M. margaritifera tended to burrow to depth of 2-3 cm in 12 cm substrate tubes, installed in natural river bed, with sand grain size of 1.0-2.0 mm. Low oxygen conditions within the test substrate were related to surfacing and low survival rates of juveniles.…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 94%

“…Lewis & Riebel, 1984;Di Maio & Corkum, 1997;Watters et al, 2001;Saarinen & Taskinen, 2003;Taskinen & Saarinen, 2006;Allen & Vaughn, 2009). However, only a few studies have focused solely on the burrowing behaviour of juvenile Unionida (Yeager et al, 1994;Sparks & Strayer, 1998;Archambault et al, 2013Archambault et al, , 2014French & Ackerman, 2014;Kemble et al, 2020), and even fewer have examined the burrowing behaviour of margaritiferids (Bílý et al, 2020). Experimental studies on a total of six Unionidae species by Yeager et al (1994) and Kemble et al (2020), showed that almost all juveniles burrowed into test sediment within 20 min.…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

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Effect of substrate particle size on burrowing of the juvenile freshwater pearl mussel Margaritifera margaritifera

et al. 2021

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Juveniles of the endangered freshwater pearl mussel (FPM, Margaritifera margaritifera) live burrowed in stream substrate for the first years of their life. Fine sediments block water exchange within substrate and may cause juvenile mortality and recruitment failure. To better understand the connection between success of juvenile FPM and substrate particle size, it would be important to understand behavioural responses of FPM to varying substrate sizes at this critical life stage. We placed newly detached FPM juveniles in a 7-mm layer of sieved sand sorted into five sizes (< 120, 120–200, 200–250, 250–500 and 500–650 µm) each with 10 replicate dishes, 10 juveniles per dish, with burrowing status monitored for 96 h. Mean dish-specific proportion burrowed (PB) was significantly affected by substrate size, increasing from 52% in the finest sand to 98% in the coarsest sand. Furthermore, the significant substrate × time interaction was observed due to dropped PB (30-34%) in finest sand at 2–4 h time points. Thus, results suggest a clear behavioural response by juvenile FPM to substrate size, with fine sediments triggering surfacing behaviour. Surfacing may indicate stress, can increase predation risk, and expose to drift and/or enable drift of juveniles.

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Section: Discussionsupporting

confidence: 71%

Section: Discussionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Section: Discussionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 94%

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

See 3 more Smart Citations

Effect of substrate particle size on burrowing of the juvenile freshwater pearl mussel Margaritifera margaritifera

et al. 2021

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Effect of low dissolved oxygen on the viability of juvenile Margaritifera margaritifera: Hypoxia tolerance ex situ

Hyvärinen

Sjönberg

Marjomäki

et al. 2022

Aquatic Conservation

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The decline of endangered freshwater pearl mussel (FPM, Margaritifera margaritifera) has been attributed to juvenile mortality caused by low concentrations of dissolved oxygen in the stream substrate resulting from fine sediments (siltation) that impede water exchange in the interstitial microhabitat of juveniles. If low oxygen concentration causes recruitment failure of FPMs, knowledge on the oxygen tolerance of juvenile FPMs is essential for the conservation of the species, as it will justify conservation efforts improving water exchange in the bottom gravel. However, the tolerance of low oxygen of FPM juveniles has not been directly studied. Juvenile FPMs (9–11 months old) were exposed in individual chambers equipped with optical oxygen measurement spots to different levels of dissolved oxygen at 19 °C and their viability was monitored for 10 days to assess the acute oxygen tolerance of juvenile FPMs. Oxygen concentration ranged between 8.8 and 6.2 mg L−1 in the high oxygen treatment (control), 5.0–0.4 mg L−1 in the medium treatment, and 1.3–0.04 mg L−1 in the low oxygen treatment (near‐anoxic conditions). Viability of juvenile FPMs depended on the concentration of available dissolved oxygen, such that all juveniles exposed to near‐anoxic conditions were classified as non‐viable, whereas all mussels exposed to high and medium concentrations were viable at the end of the 10 day experiment. Juveniles differed in their ability to tolerate near‐anoxic conditions, so that some individuals survived only 1 day and others survived up to 9 days. This study provides the first direct experimental evidence on the oxygen sensitivity of FPM juveniles and suggests that >10‐day events of very low dissolved oxygen at summer temperatures are fatal to juvenile FPMs, supporting the view that actions preventing low oxygen episodes in the substrate are essential for recruitment, and conservation, of FPMs.

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Experimental quantification of multiple point‐source pollution effects on juvenile freshwater mussels in a stream exposure gradient

Barák

Jahelková

Simon

et al. 2022

Aquatic Conservation

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1. Population declines in freshwater mussels (Unionida) resulting from failed recruitment, together with episodic water pollution potentially leading to juvenile mussel mortality, are often suspected (but rarely well documented), even in the most strictly protected aquatic areas.2. The aim of this study was to test a robust design for an in situ investigation of the water pollution effects on juvenile freshwater pearl mussel (FPM, Margaritifera margaritifera) in the protected Malše River (Czech Republic), which acts as a model system. A 30-km river reach was delineated to include a section with previously recorded episodic multiple point-source pollution events, as well as downstream and upstream control sections. Juvenile FPMs in open water mesh cages were exposed to river water at 15 sites in 42 exposure units (342 juveniles in individual chambers), and their survival and shell growth were assessed after a 33-day period of low-flow and high-temperature conditions. The main physicochemical indicators related to municipal water pollution were measured weekly.3. The study results confirmed significantly impaired water quality indicated by episodic changes in total ammonia nitrogen (up to 1.037 mg L À1 ), total phosphorus (up to 0.516 mg L À1 ) and oxygen saturation (down to 75.0%) in the impaired section. While the growth of FPM (corrected for temperature effects) was significantly increased (shell length increment: 32.7 ± 9.7%impaired, 26.4 ± 10.0%control sections; mean ± SD), the survival (mean ± SD) of juveniles was significantly decreased in the impaired section (86.4 ± 12.5%) compared with the control sections (97.4 ± 5.7%).4. This study has demonstrated the capacity of applying a caged bivalve model at a fine spatial scale within a longitudinal river profile to document the impacts of water pollution. The methodology applied here may provide a useful tool for assessing and improving the level of water quality management and is applicable in FPM action plans and stream biotope conservation in general.

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Occurrence depth of juvenile freshwater pearl mussels (Margaritifera margaritifera) in a river bed tested by experimental mesh tubes

Cited by 10 publications

References 28 publications

Effect of substrate particle size on burrowing of the juvenile freshwater pearl mussel Margaritifera margaritifera

Effect of substrate particle size on burrowing of the juvenile freshwater pearl mussel Margaritifera margaritifera

Effect of low dissolved oxygen on the viability of juvenile Margaritifera margaritifera: Hypoxia tolerance ex situ

Experimental quantification of multiple point‐source pollution effects on juvenile freshwater mussels in a stream exposure gradient

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