The Mussel Population of an Area of Loamy-Sand Bottom of Lake Texoma

Abstract

Published accounts of studies of fresh-water mussel populations in the United States are few. During the period when the pearl button industry was at its height, mussel fishing was extensively practiced, and the mussel fishery intensively studied by the U. S. Bureau of Fisheries, many faunal papers were published which listed the mussels of various lakes, rivers, And drainage basins. These papers included general statements on the habitat preferences and the abundance of mussels, but little exact and specific data on the number of mussels per unit of area of stream or lake bottom. Information on mussel populations in impounded waters is even more scarce. Where impoundment occurs, undoubtedly it is responsible for the eradication of some species which lived in the stream before impoundment; it has little effect on other species, and even favors some species. Coker et al (1922), stated that wing darns in the upper Mississippi River often produced environments unfit for mussels that were formerly abundant in the same portion of the river. They also stated that lakes with a free circulation of water seem to be favorable to mussels, particularly those situated in the course of a river. This was not a reference to impoundments, however, but to lakes such as Lake Pepin in the Mississippi River. Similar conditions are present in certain impoundments, and in the absence of environmental factors decidedly detrimental to mussels (e.g., heavy siltation; extreme water level fluctuations; pollution) such impoundments should support large mussel populations, in many cases much larger than were supported by comparable areas of the river before impoundment. Lake Texoma is formed by the Denison Dam which impoumds the Red River just downstream from its confluence with the Washita River (Bryan County, Oklahoma; Grayson County, Texas). The United States Department of Interior (1943), the Oklahoma Planning and Resources Board (1946; 1953), and the U. S. Army Engineers (1948) give pertinent general data on this lake. The Red River, because of its heavy silt load and constantly changing bed, is unsuited for mussels (Coker et al., 1922; Isely, 1924). Isely (1924) 2 carefully examined its bed in three areas (all of which are now within Lake Texoma) and found very few mussels-52 living specimens and several shells, representing eight species in all. The shells included: Quadrula pustulosca, Q. forsheyi (= Q. quadrula, Neel, 1941), Lampsilis ventricosa, and Anodonta 1 Contribution 'f the University of Oklahoma Biological Station, Lake Texoma. 2 Coker et al. (1922) said that Isely (1914) examined the Red River and found few mussels. Our examination of Isley (1914) showed no such statement. They probably referred to Isely (1924) which was submitted to the U. S. Bureau of Fisheries about 1914, but was never published by that organization due to World War I. This same manuscript was later published in the Proc. Okla. Acad. Sci., Vol. 4.