Assessing Mussel Survival and Growth as Steps Before Reintroductions to the Cuyahoga River, Ohio, USA
Abstract
Few rivers in the United States are more infamous than Ohio's Cuyahoga River. Its waters, which were once characterized as oozing--not flowing--in the 1960s became the impetus for the Clean Water Act of 1972 following publicity on a series of fires. Returning fauna to the Cuyahoga River has become a major focus especially of the Cuyahoga Valley National Park (CUVA), which notes that fish populations and water quality have improved but that no natural recovery offreshwater mussels has occurred even within extensive protected parklands. Collaborating with multiple stakeholders, pilot projects tested whether the river is satisfactory for mussel survival and growth. In the first round of testing, adult Ortmanniana ligamentina (muckets) from a nearby river were inserted into wire cages spread across 3 locations within the Cuyahoga River, and their survival was monitored over a period of 70 days. A second round of testing examined the survival and growth of hatchery-reared 1-year old Lampsilis siliquoidea (fatmuckets) inserted into small mesh silos placed in 5 locations within the Cuyahoga River over a period of 105 days. The second set of tests also measured the survival of resident mussels in a control location in the Grand River, Ohio, where mussels are abundant. Almost all of the adult O. ligamentina mussels survived, except where sediment inundated the enclosures, and the survival of the juvenile L. siliquoidea mussels approached 60% with 16% linear growth in a 105 day period, matching results at the control site. Thus, water quality and food resources, which were also assessed by chemical and particulate analysis, appeared sufficient to consider reintroducing mussels to selected sites within the Cuyahoga River.
Keywords: conservation, habitat, stream, Unionidae, sedimentation
How to Cite:
Trimbath, R. J., Herbruck, M. L., Soehnlen, E. S., Knapp, S. M., Kapusinski, D. J., Benshoff, A. K., Hannes, A. R., Elder, R. A. & Krebs, R. A., (2026) “Assessing Mussel Survival and Growth as Steps Before Reintroductions to the Cuyahoga River, Ohio, USA”, The Ohio Journal of Science 124(2), 125-134. doi: https://doi.org/10.18061/ojs.6503
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