EARLY HEARING DETECTION AND INTERVENTION VIRTUAL CONFERENCE
MARCH 2-5, 2021

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5/22/2018  |   2:30 PM - 2:45 PM   |  DO TROPHIC SUBSIDIES AND HABITAT PROVIDED BY MUSSELS INFLUENCE THE OCCURRENCE OF FISHES?   |  420 A

DO TROPHIC SUBSIDIES AND HABITAT PROVIDED BY MUSSELS INFLUENCE THE OCCURRENCE OF FISHES?

Freshwater mussels occur as large multi-species aggregations that are spatially heterogeneous in streams. Mussels provide trophic subsidies via nutrient excretion and biodeposition and their shells provide biogenic habitat. These factors often result in increased primary production and macroinvertebrate abundance in areas with high mussel biomass, which might attract fishes. We performed a field experiment to test if fish occurrences were influenced by the presence of trophic subsidies associated with live mussels or biogenic habitat of shells. We used underwater video cameras to quantify fish occurrences at 50, 0.25 m2 experimental enclosures stocked with either live mussels (two species), sham mussels (shells filled with sand), or sediment only. Probability of occurrence for fish was higher in live mussel and sham treatments compared to the sediment only treatment. However, there was no difference between live mussel and sham treatments, suggesting habitat provided by mussel shells may benefit co-occurring fishes. Understanding the distribution of multiple consumer groups is important because aggregated communities may act synergistically to concentrate the ecosystem level effects of each group.

  • Mussel
  • Community
  • Food Webs

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Presenters/Authors

Garrett Hopper (), Kansas State University, ghopper@ksu.edu;


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Traci DuBose (), University of Oklahoma, tracipopejoy@ou.edu;


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Keith Gido (), Kansas State University, kgido@ksu.edu;


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Caryn C. Vaughn (), University of Oklahoma, carynvaughn@gmail;


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