Sunday 10 April 2016

Invasive species not best conservation tool, study shows

Make matters worse for native mollusks

Date:April 6, 2016
Source:University of Guelph

Harnessing an invasive fish species sounded like a promising conservation tool to help reverse the destruction wreaked by zebra mussels on endangered native mollusks in the Great Lakes -- except that it won't work, says a University of Guelph ecologist.

In a novel twist on invasive species ecology, a research team led by integrative biology professor Joe Ackerman found that the round goby fish -- an invader in Ontario waters -- only makes matters worse for native mollusks already driven to near-extinction by an earlier zebra mussel invasion.

The Guelph team's paper appears today in the Royal Society Open Science journal.

Ackerman worked with lead author and former master's student Maude Tremblay and Todd Morris, a researcher at Fisheries and Oceans Canada.

Suspension-feeding mussels living on the bottom of lakes and streams help to clean water used for everything for drinking to fishing and other recreation.

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