Survival and attachment of biofouling freshwater mussel (Limnoperna fortunei) to environmental conditions: potential implications in its invasion, infection and biofouling control

Abstract

The golden mussel (Limnoperna fortunei) has caused worldwide problems for the eco-environment and man-made structures. There have been many control strategies proposed, which have various strengths and weaknesses. To help selection of the effective control strategies that consider the biological traits of L. fortunei and the actual situation of biofouling, we studied the ecological amplitudes that indicate the tolerance of the species to environmental conditions and propose appropriate strategies based on their ecological amplitudes. We set five levels for the environmental factors water temperature, dissolved oxygen concentration, pH and ammonium ion concentration and four levels for light intensity. The survival ratio and attachment ratio of golden mussels under the different environmental conditions were measured and the nonlinear regression models were used to simulate the ecological amplitudes of golden mussel. The results show that their ecological amplitudes are wide-ranging with respect to water temperature (13–29 °C), dissolved oxygen (> 1.5 mg/L), pH (4.1–8.7), ammonium ions concentration (lower 65 mg/L) and light intensity (0–55,000 l x) and the mussels show obvious negative phototaxis. Therefore, adjustment of the environment with high water temperatures, low dissolved oxygen, high pH values or strong and continuous light illumination is suggested as a potentially effective control strategy of golden mussel biofouling.