Search USGS⌕ Search
Home/Archive/USGS

USGS · 70026813

Life history and propagation of the endangered dromedary pearlymussel (Dromus dromas) (Bivalvia:Unionidae)

J. W. Jones·R. J. Neves·S.A. Ahlstedt·R.A. Mair
View original source ↗Export metadata ↓

Abstract

The reproduction, demography, and propagation of the endangered dromedary pearlymussel (Dromus dromas) (Lea, 1834) were studied in the Clinch and Powell rivers, Tennessee. Viable populations of the dromedary pearlymussel now occur only in the Clinch and Powell rivers; the species has been extirpated from the remaining portions of its range in the Cumberland and Tennessee river drainages. Females are long-term winter brooders, and they are gravid from October to June. Glochidia are contained in conglutinates that are red to white and resemble freshwater leeches or flatworms. Conglutinates are 20 to 40 mm long and are released through the excurrent aperture. Estimates of fecundity based on 7 gravid females collected from the Clinch River were 55,110 to 253,050 glochidia/mussel. The ages of 66 valves of D. dromas were determined by thin-sectioning and ranged from 3 to 25 y. Annual growth averaged 5 mm/y until age 10 and decreased to ???1.2 mm/ y thereafter. Nineteen fish species were tested for suitability as hosts for glochidia. Ten were confirmed as hosts through induced infestations of glochidia: black sculpin (Cottus baileyi), greenside darter (Etheostoma blennioides), fantail darter (Etheostoma flabellare), snubnose darter (Etheostoma simoterum), tangerine darter (Percina aurantiaca), blotchside logperch (Percina burtoni), logperch (Percina caprodes), channel darter (Percina copelandi), gilt darter (Percina evides), and Roanoke darter (Percina roanoka). Juveniles produced from these hosts were cultured in dishes held in nonrecirculating aquaculture systems containing fine sediment (<105 ??m) and were fed the green alga Nannochloropsis oculata every 2 d. Survival of 2810 newly metamorphosed juveniles was 836 (29.7%) after 1 to 2 wk.

Explore related subjects

Journal of the North American Benthological SocietyArticle

Keep this discovery

Explore connections, maps & timelines

BibTeXRIS

J. W. Jones, R. J. Neves, S.A. Ahlstedt, R.A. Mair. 2004. Life history and propagation of the endangered dromedary pearlymussel (Dromus dromas) (Bivalvia:Unionidae). https://doi.org/10.1899/0887-3593(2004)023%3C0515%3Alhapot%3E2.0.co%3B2

Cite the original work for its findings. Save a collection to share your selection of sources.

KEEP EXPLORING

Related USGS reports

USGS2011

Structural complexity, movement bias, and metapopulation extinction risk in dendritic ecological networks

Spatial complexity in metacommunities can be separated into 3 main components: size (i.e., number of habitat patches), spatial arrangement of habitat patches (network topology), and diversity of habitat patch types. Much attention has been paid to lattice-type networks, such as patch-based metapopulations, but interest in understanding ecological networks of alternative geometries is building. Dendritic ecological networks (DENs) include some increasingly threatened ecological systems, such as caves and streams. The restrictive architecture of dendritic ecological networks might have overriding implications for species persistence. I used a modeling approach to investigate how number and spatial arrangement of habitat patches influence metapopulation extinction risk in 2 DENs of different size and topology. Metapopulation persistence was higher in larger networks, but this relationship was mediated by network topology and the dispersal pathways used to navigate the network. Larger networks, especially those with greater topological complexity, generally had lower extinction risk than smaller and less-complex networks, but dispersal bias and magnitude affected the shape of this relationship. Applying these general results to real systems will require empirical data on the movement behavior of organisms and will improve our understanding of the implications of network complexity on population and community patterns and processes.

Journal of the North American Benthological Societ↗
USGS2011

Fish community and bioassessment responses to stream network position

If organisms move beyond the boundaries of local sampling units, regional metacommunity dynamics could undermine the ability of bioassessment studies to characterize local environmental quality. We tested the prediction that fish dispersal influences local fish community structure and bioassessment metrics as a function of site position within stream networks. We evaluated fish community data from the US Environmental Protection Agency's Regional Environmental Monitoring and Assessment Program in West Virginia, USA, to compare the influences of stream network position, ecoregion, basin, and stream size on local fish community composition. We assigned sites to 1 of 3 stream network positions: 1) main channels (MC, n = 12) encompassed streams with upstream catchment areas >200 km 2 , 2) mainstem tributaries (MT, n = 43) flowed into MC-sized confluences within 15 fluvial km, 3) headwater tributaries (HT, n = 31) lacked such riverine confluences within 15 fluvial km. MT and HT sites had similar upstream catchment sizes and landuse gradients, but species richness was greater in MT sites than HT sites, whereas MT and MC sites were not different in this regard. Three bioassessment metrics were greater in MT sites than HT sites (intolerant species richness, cyprinid species richness, benthic species richness), but a multimetric index of biotic integrity did not differ among stream network positions. Ordinations revealed that fish community composition was organized primarily by zoogeographic basin (Monongahela River basin, New River basin, Ohio River basin), ecoregion (Central Appalachian Plateau, Western Appalachian Plateau, Ridge and Valley), and stream size. Riverine specialists were more abundant in MT than HT sites and were more abundant in basins connected to the Ohio River than in basins isolated from the Ohio River by a large waterfall (New River). Our results suggest that contemporary dispersal among streams influences fish community composition over small spatial scales (10 1 km), historical dispersal constrained by zoogeographic barriers influences community structure over larger areas (10 2 km), and contemporary dispersal by fishes influences certain metrics commonly used in bioassessment programs.

Journal of the North American Benthological Societ↗
USGS2011

Accelerated construction of a regional DNA-barcode reference library: Caddisflies (Trichoptera) in the Great Smoky Mountains National Park

Deoxyribonucleic acid (DNA) barcoding is an effective tool for species identification and lifestage association in a wide range of animal taxa. We developed a strategy for rapid construction of a regional DNA-barcode reference library and used the caddisflies (Trichoptera) of the Great Smoky Mountains National Park (GSMNP) as a model. Nearly 1000 cytochrome c oxidase subunit I (COI) sequences, representing 209 caddisfly species previously recorded from GSMNP, were obtained from the global Trichoptera Barcode of Life campaign. Most of these sequences were collected from outside the GSMNP area. Another 645 COI sequences, representing 80 species, were obtained from specimens collected in a 3-d bioblitz (short-term, intense sampling program) in GSMNP. The joint collections provided barcode coverage for 212 species, 91% of the GSMNP fauna. Inclusion of samples from other localities greatly expedited construction of the regional DNA-barcode reference library. This strategy increased intraspecific divergence and decreased average distances to nearest neighboring species, but the DNA-barcode library was able to differentiate 93% of the GSMNP Trichoptera species examined. Global barcoding projects will aid construction of regional DNA-barcode libraries, but local surveys make crucial contributions to progress by contributing rare or endemic species and full-length barcodes generated from high-quality DNA. DNA taxonomy is not a goal of our present work, but the investigation of COI divergence patterns in caddisflies is providing new insights into broader biodiversity patterns in this group and has directed attention to various issues, ranging from the need to re-evaluate species taxonomy with integrated morphological and molecular evidence to the necessity of an appropriate interpretation of barcode analyses and its implications in understanding species diversity (in contrast to a simple claim for barcoding failure).

Journal of the North American Benthological Societ↗