Poster Details
UNDETECTABLE ENVIRONMENTAL DRIVERS OF UNIONID MUSSEL GROWTH IN TROUT LAKE, WI
Annual growth rates in freshwater mussels have been shown to correlate with important environmental variables such as discharge and temperature in lotic systems, but drivers of growth in lentic systems have yet to be examined. We analyzed thin-sections of Lampsilis siliquoidea shells to calculate long-term annual growth rates from Trout Lake, Wisconsin—a cool, oligotrophic lake, studied extensively as a part of the North Temperate Lakes Long-Term Ecological Research network. Mussel shells displayed a moderately high level of synchrony in annual growth among individuals spanning nearly 30 years (n = 19, interseries correlation = 0.405). However, annual growth was not significantly correlated with any physical, chemical, or biological variable we assessed. It is unclear the extent to which these results are general across other freshwater lake ecosystems, but serve as an important reminder that life-history dynamics and their environmental drivers are poorly understood in freshwater mussels.
Vincent Butitta (Primary Presenter/Author), Center for Limnology, vincent.butitta@wisc.edu;
Emily Stanley (Co-Presenter/Co-Author), University of Wisconsin - Madison, ehstanley@wisc.edu;
Andrew Rypel (Co-Presenter/Co-Author), University of California-Davis, andrewrypel@gmail.com;