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Early-detection monitoring survey addressing dreissenid incursions to Apostle Islands National Lakeshore
Citation:
Hatzenbuhler, C., J. Barge, A. Cotter, J. Hoffman, C. Meredith, Greg Peterson, S. Okum, E. Pilgrim, A. Trebitz, AND M. Wick. Early-detection monitoring survey addressing dreissenid incursions to Apostle Islands National Lakeshore. Upper Midwest Invasive Species Conference, Rochester, MN, October 15 - 18, 2018.
Impact/Purpose:
The early-detection monitoring survey described in this poster was motivated by a request for help from the National Park Service (NPS) in understanding the distribution and potential impacts of Dreissenid (zebra and quagga) mussels in waters surrounding the Apostle Island National Lakeshore. This work falls under SSWR research area 3.01A-2.1, and builds on previous EPA/ORD case studies concerning early-detection monitoring strategies. Outcomes from this research will include development of more refined and robust sampling strategies for non-native species in different coastal systems across the Great Lakes, advancement of DNA-based tools for conducting such monitoring, and providing a baseline for future biological assessment in NPS waters.
Description:
The notion that Lake Superior is inhospitable to dreissenid survival has been repudiated by recent finds of these mussels on shipwrecks, commercial fishing gear, and substrates in the Apostle Islands region. Motivated by National Park Service concerns surrounding these finds, the U.S. EPA in 2017 conducted an intensive sampling campaign of Apostle Island National Lakeshore coastal waters, aimed at understanding prevalence and distribution of dreissenids and provide a baseline for potential impacts on other zooplankton and benthic invertebrates. The sampling effort combined a depth-stratified random design and a design targeting likely introduction points or attractive habitat, and yielded ~100 samples each of zooplankton, benthos, eDNA water, water chemistry and benthic imagery. Field crews did not observe adult dreissenids in any samples but some veligers were detected under polarized-light scans of mesh colonization banners and we expect confirmation of dreissenid presence, albeit at low abundance, with ongoing DNA metabarcoding and qPCR marker work. Once taxonomic results are available, statistical and geospatial analyses will focus on dreissenid distribution and detection probability as well as community composition analysis to evaluate early-detection monitoring strategies more broadly.