Zebra Mussels Research Paper

Freshwater Invasion by Zebra Mussels
In freshwater habitats found in North America and Europe, zebra mussels have become an invasive species. In the 1800s, zebra mussels from the Caspian and Black Seas became an invasive species in Europe, and in the 1980s, the zebra mussels became an invasive species in North America (Rahmat et al., 228). With the extended time frame that the zebra mussels have had as an invasive species on two continents, their patterns as an invasive species is easier to study, making predictions as to their future invasions of aquatic ecosystems easier. The information gathered from studying this invasive species may lead to further understanding of other invasive species and ways to counteract their harmful effects. The issues pertaining to the invasive issues regarding zebra mussels are similar to those of any invasive species, which is that the invasive species is usually found to have damaging or altering effects on the ecosystem that they come to reside in. One of the preliminary steps in containing an invasive species is to determine where they are currently located and where they will spread to
Factors that were initially considered to contribute to the success of zebra mussels becoming an invasive species in a given environment that were considered in this experiment included, but were not limited to, calcium, total phosphorus, mean depth, surface area, and lake volume. While comparing the variables found between the environments, some of the variables were in need of being disregarded as inessential information. Three variables that were found to best correlate to the success of the zebra mussels and to the data were surface area, total phosphorus, and calcium. Therefore, these were the variables that were considered as essential to predicting the probability of zebra mussels to invade an environment (Rahmat et