When zebra and quagga mussels appeared in the Great Lakes in the late 80s, measures of chlorophyll dropped as they consumed most available plankton. They grew to represent 90% of animal biomass in the Lakes, changing the entire biogeochemical balance forever. Phosphorus cycling was especially influenced. While they store phosphorus in their tissues, they also release it from their feces and when they die, seeding harmful algal blooms at certain times of year. Combined with the fact that the mussels eat pretty much anything except harmful cyanobacteria, the stage was set for annual cyanobacterial blooms to recur in some of the southerly Great Lakes since the 90s, where the mussels are particularly prolific. #clamFacts
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@dantheclamman When I pulled my boat out of Lake Michigan in August 2024 and drove it back to Washington state, I had to stop at 4 boat inspection stations along the way. Even though the boat had been power washed, inspectors at two of the stations found teeny tiny mussels tucked in crevices on the hull. Fortunately, the boat went right into salt water after about a week on the hard and that should have killed the mussels. But they are no joke and western states are taking them seriously.