Sonar technology and underwater imagery analysis can enhance invasive Dreissena distribution assessment in large rivers

Conservation of freshwater bivalves at the global scale: diversity, threats and research needs

“…Although many research gaps and conservation needs have been identified in the last years, many recent technological advances can provide us with new insights that are needed for FB research. For example, new remote sensing techniques like underwater video and side-scan sonars may help survey FB populations, and identify more favourable habitats (Powers et al, 2014;Mehler et al, 2016). Use of drones in semi-arid regions can aid in tracking and identifying the remaining pools after droughts where mussels take refuge.…”

“…These papers cover a wide variety of topics, from a review of ecosystem services provided by freshwater mussels (Vaughn, 2017) to papers describing the diversity patterns and conservation of Unionida in East and Southeast Asia (Zieritz et al, 2017) as a result of international collaboration. Seven papers focus on different biological aspects of invasive bivalve species, including diversity changes by species substitution , physiological aspects (Labecka & Domagala, 2016), dispersion (Collas et al, 2016), ecological effects on native bivalve species (Ferreira-Rodríguez et al, 2016), low palatability to distinct predators (Castro et al, 2017), metabolite emission suppression in zebra mussels exposed to predation stress (Antoł et al, 2017) and the use of a new sonar technology and underwater imagery analysis for the survey of FB in rivers (Mehler et al, 2016). Propagation as a conservation tool was the subject of three studies: one about an improved method of in vitro culture of glochidia (Ma et al, 2016), one introducing short-term breeding of the Endangered freshwater pearl mussel Margaritifera margaritifera (Linnaeus, 1758) as a new technique for the augmentation of declining populations (Moorkens, 2017) and one revising the challenges in the conservation progress of Margaritifera auricularia (Spengler, 1793) .…”

Integrating remote sensing and species distribution modelling to predict benthic communities in a Great Lakes connecting channel

“…The mean channel width was 700 m, and the mean water depth was 10 m with a maximum depth of 25 m. The substrate in the river is highly variable ranging from silty sand to large boulders and bedrock. The mean near‐bottom flow was ~0.5 m/s with rapids reaching 1.7 m/s (Mehler et al, ). The flow regime is disturbed by hydroelectric power plants with strong diurnal water level fluctuations varying between 0.3 and 0.6 m (New York Power Authority, ).…”

“…For example, Ceola et al () coupled bottom shear stress with habitat suitability curves to generate invertebrate habitat suitability maps for Ephemeroptera mayflies, and Li, Cai, Fu, and Liu () modelled changes in the habitat suitability for Baetis spp based on categorized streamflow scenarios. Assessing the spatial distribution of benthic communities in large rivers can be a difficult task: Environmental variables such as substrate size, organic matter content, near‐bottom flow velocity, and shear stress often vary over several orders of magnitudes even at small scales (Mehler et al, ). Therefore, the spatial distribution of benthic communities can be extremely patchy.…”

“…Due to the rapid development of remote sensing techniques, large‐scale environmental data can now be collected in cost‐ and time‐efficient ways (Brown, Smith, Lawton, and Anderson, ). The Niagara River is an important connecting channel between Lake Erie and Lake Ontario and is characterized by highly variable environmental conditions, especially substrate (Mehler et al, ). The Niagara River also acts as a vector for spread of a number of nonindigenous species (United States Fish and Wildlife Service, ).…”