Abstract
We offer a case study showing: a) the susceptibility of the Truckee River and Lake Tahoe to an invasion by the New Zealand mudsnail (Potamopyrgus antipodarum) and b) the short-term impacts on periphyton standing crop in the Truckee River and Lake Tahoe as a result of grazing by New Zealand mudsnails. Snail survivorship in the Truckee River experiment ranged from 50–85 percent across treatments and snail survivorship ranged from 5–40 percent in the Lake Tahoe experiment. Periphyton standing crop was negatively affected in both snail density treatments of the Truckee River experiment but the results were mixed in the Lake Tahoe experiment. Our results suggest that the Truckee River is more vulnerable to establishment by New Zealand mudsnails than Lake Tahoe.
Highlights
In the Western United States ecosystem managers have turned their attention to a relatively new invader, the New Zealand mudsnail, Potamopyrgus antipodarum (Gray, 1843)
Our results suggest that the Truckee River may be more susceptible than Lake Tahoe to an invasion by Potamopyrgus antipodarum
In the Truckee River experiment, snails had higher growth rates in the high-density treatment (HD) treatment than the lowdensity treatment (LD) treatment; survival rates were higher in the LD treatment (Table 2, Figure 1)
Summary
In the Western United States ecosystem managers have turned their attention to a relatively new invader, the New Zealand mudsnail, Potamopyrgus antipodarum (Gray, 1843). P. antipodarum can rapidly spread through aquatic ecosystems. P. antipodarum is a small snail (5 mm or less) that can establish in high densities of up to 800,000/m2, causing a number of deleterious impacts (Kerans et al 2005). The snails can compete with native invertebrates for algae, decreasing native macroinvertebrate biodiversity and biomass (Zaranko et al 1997; Kerans et al 2005). P. antipodarum do not represent a profitable food source for fish because their shells can resist digestion (Bowler 1991). The poor food quality of P. antipodarum and decrease in native invertebrate populations can negatively impact fish growth rates (Vinson and Baker 2008)
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