Mussels are Saving Our Freshwater Ecosystems

Freshwater mussels play a very important role in our freshwater ecosystems. They adapted a process known as resource partitioning. This is the division of limited resources by species living in the same environment to avoid competition between each other. This process aids in the success of multispecies mussel bed. The goal of my research is to determine how these mussels, in one mussel bed, are partitioning the available resources. This will be done by identifying the species of bacteria that two mussels, that live in the same mussel bed, are utilizing as a food source and comparing it to the bacteria that is available for them to utilize in the environment. This is important to study because mussels play a huge role in keeping our water systems healthy. Mussels are filter-feeders, which means they take in large quantities of water, filter out the food, in this case bacteria, and push out the excess water, essentially purifying the surrounding water. The water systems that mussel live in and purify, is where we obtain our drinking water and being able to determine the bacteria they are taking out of the water is very beneficial to the management of these water systems.