Musseling Around: 2012 & 2013 Frederick W. Schueler & Aleta Karstad Bishops Mills Natural History Centre RR#2 Bishops Mills, Ontario, Canada K0G 1T0 on the Smiths Falls Limestone Plain 44* 52'N 75* 42'W (613)258-3107 <bckcdb@istar.ca> http://pinicola.ca/unio/ remote presentation to Ontario Freshwater Mussel Recovery Team Meeting (6 June 2013) 09h30-15h30 @ CCIW (867 Lakeshore Rd, Burlington)
2012-2013 Beaver Lake area Ligumia nasuta exploration: We found Ligumia nasuta in Beaver Lake, on the Frontenac Arch in the Salmon River, at Erinsville, in 1998, but Zebra mussels have since taken out at least the bulk of this lake's Unionid populations. On 16 April we searched the lake SW (and upstream) of Beaver Lake, which is called Inglesby or White Lake, and is about half the size of one moderately fresh Ligumia nasuta Beaver Lake. It is free of Zebra Mussels, but has nearly completely privatized shores. The one public access is an inconspicuous unsigned boatlaunch ramp, and in the 30 m of the shore there we found a scattering of freshly opened Elliptio and Pyganodon shells, and one moderately fresh Ligumia nasuta pair. The only other public access is a road allowance (which from its tangled condition clearly isn't used for public access) on the other side of the lake; no Unionid shells were to be seen there. In May 2013 we returned to the boatlaunch site, and found two more shells, but no living L. nasuta. Canoeing around this lake, to survey more of it, will be part of the Salmon River project this summer. White, or Inglesby, Lake
2012 Drought: This was a drought year in eastern Ontario, which allowed us to replicate some of the collections of shells, left by low-water predators, that we'd made in the droughts of 1999 and 2001. These collections were made hurriedly in short periods when we were home, and are mostly unanalysed, but allow a rough conclusion of status quo ante for Indian Creek above Roebuck (despite a new fishway which might have let glochidia-bearing fish around a little dam), the South Nation River at Spencerville, and the Jock River at the Dwyer Hill Road. There seemed to be a surge in abundance in rapidly grown Lasmigona Indian Creek in a non-drought year costata in Kemptville Creek at Oxford Mills, and increases in L. compressa and Elliptio complanata in Middle Creek in Bishops Mills. The extensive mortality along these small streams suggests a decadal life cycle, in which mussels grow rapidly during a decade of non-drought years, and are then knocked back by direct and predatory mortality during droughts, suggesting that increased frequency of droughts could wipe out many of these small-stream populations, and that species abundances may be different in different periods of normal and above normal flow. Middle Creek at Bishops Mills, 31 Aug 2012
Ottawa River: In driving to northeastern Ontario in September 2012, we tried to exploit the drought to make low-water collections along the Ottawa River, hoping especially to encounter shells of Obovaria olivaria. Water levels were not as low as expected, so we had only modest success; the only significant improvements to knowledge of distribution being a beach sample from the mouth of the Muskrat River in Pembroke (Elliptio complanata, abundant, Lampsilis spp. 21, Lasmigona costata 3, Anodontoides ferussacianus 3, Pyganodon grandis, 1), and Ligumia recta shells from an island in the Ottawa River, south of Allumette Island. In coming months, we'll be coordinating a general survey of the river with Jackie Madill of the CMN, and we've worked to inject concern for Unionids into the planning of the Pontiac Chats Falls Park - http://www.saultdeschats.ca/ The Ottawa River still needs a houseboat, canoes, and brails expedition down its entire length.
2012 Northeastern Ontario dam sites: With the help of members of the Ontario Rivers Alliance, we visited sites where subsidy-dependent hydro dams are proposed on medium-size rivers in northeastern Ontario. Water levels were fairly high, and we collected shells mostly from sites of apparent Beaver predation. Lampsilis radiata siliquoidea and Pyganodon grandis were the only generally abundant species in the north, with Elliptio complanata dominant in the Ottawa drainage and French River. Lampsilis was the most abundant species at most sites; patterns of relative abundance of Lampsilis and Pyganodon in the high-energy portions of rapids and the adjacent slower reaches were not consistent among sites; abundances were more nearly equal in lakes, and these were the only species found in the Vermilion River, despite its connection to Lake Huron; Ligumia recta was confirmed in the Petawawa River, where, in one reach, it was the second most abundant species. Counts of Unionid shells collected in northeastern Ontario, Sept-Oct 2012 location
date
Lampsilis Elliptio
Pyganodon Ligumia Strophitus
Frederickhouse R nr Wanatango Falls 18-19 Sept
253
5
13
–
–
Ivanhoe R at Chutes
23 Sept
310
–
2
–
–
Groundhog R at Hwy 101
24 Sept
31
–
6
–
–
Boulder L outlet at Hwy101
24 Sept
6
–
6
–
–
Ivanhoe R at Triple Falls
25 Sept
83 ca
–
12 ca
–
–
Scorch Creek/Scorch L outlet
26-27 Sept
37 ca
–
11 ca
–
–
Vermilion R, 6.7kmS Worthington
27-28 Sept
255
–
10
–
–
Vermilion R, N shore Wabagishik L
28 Sept
–
–
26
–
–
Vermilion R, Wabagishik Rapids
28 Sept
7
–
33
–
–
Vermilion R, Centennial Park
29 Sept
74
–
16
–
–
French R, Wanapitae Bay
1 Oct
4
39
1
1?
–
Wanapitae R, Sturgeon Chute
1 Oct
12
7
197
–
3
Mattawa R @ Hurdman dam
2 Oct
Petawawa R WNW Petawawa
3 Oct
100's
7 90 (2800) – 12 Proposed dam sites are bolded, colour indicates relative abundances discussed in the text
–
2012 ORA fall AGM: At the Annual General Meeting of the Ontario Rivers Alliance, in North Bay, 28 October 2012, we urged participants to heed the Unionid faunas of the rivers they are trying to protect, and passed out identified samples of the shells of common species http://ontarioriversalliance.ca/unionid-mussels-%E2%80%93-our-subtly-beautiful-largest-invertebrate-animals/ - we'll see what this produces as the summer of 2013 progresses. We put together a calendar with paintings and text about this situation, which ORA used as a fundraiser. â&#x20AC;&#x153;The big fact about high energy sites in Ontario is that lots of them were taken out by the mill dams and industrial waterpower dams of the 19th Century, and then many more were taken out by the hydroelectric dams of the early and mid- 20th Century, so that when we're considering the fate of the remaining sites they've got to be thought of as 'communities at risk' - a small remaining fraction of the high energy sites that were present before settlement. Our recent visits to waterfalls and chutes were inspired by the threat of a third generation of damming, again accompanied by political shenanigans and hijinks, which promise to deliver ecological damage and doubtful social utility, while providing gratuitous fiscal profits to the promoters of the schemes. By these visits, we hope to document both the beauty of the sites, and the unstudied populations of big invertebrates, freshwater mussels and Crayfish, which make up so much of the life in these rivers.â&#x20AC;? http://www.lulu.com/spotlight/karstad
2012-2013 Lake Erie beaches and tributaries: In November of 2013 and May of 2012, we visited sites along the north shore of Lake Erie, picking up drift incidental to surveys of Fowler's Toads' habitat, checking out the Welland Canal Feeder Canal as a refuge habitat, and investigating the drawn-down “Silver Lake” on Lynn River in Port Dover to see what species might have lived there. Beach samples are yet to be fully studied, but it seems that there's shells, in drift from open sandy beaches, which are too fresh to have died with the onset of Dreissena, hinting that there may be more kinds of refugia in Lake Erie than we've considered so far. We're predisposed to beach-combing, and our goals along the shores of the Great Lakes have now expanded from documenting the wearing-away of Dreissena-killed Unionid shells, to seeing where we can find implausibly fresh shells. The Welland Canal Feeder Canal has a complex history outlined at http://oldwellandcanals.wikidot.com/feeder-canal In one visit to the canal in 2008 we'd found old shells of Quadrula quadrula, Toxolasma parvum ,and Truncilla donaciformis, but water levels were too high in our 2012 and 2013 visits to search effectively: there were no Dreissena, and an old Amblema plicata pair hints at Unionid survival. The depth and conditions along this canal are diverse and ought to be surveyed to see what's living there, especially if the Grand River dam in Dunnville is to be “mitigated.” At Lynn River, the situation involves both the potential of removing two One of a few implausibly-fresh L. nasuta old mill dams to allow fish from Lake Erie access to the stream, and the shells from Crystal Beach, Lake Erie fate of pesticide residues under the buried site of old greenhouses. In November 2012 we found no living Unionids or fresh shells: only old scraps of shells washing out of the gravel at an eroding riffle. see - http://karstaddailypaintings.blogspot.ca/2012/11/26-november-finds-me-paintingview.html
Malacological Biography & morphic portraits: The early winter was consumed with Unionidae, including Recovery Team meetings, and putting together documents about eastern Ontario SAR for these meetings â&#x20AC;&#x201C; Schueler, Frederick W., & Isabelle Picard. 2013 The search for populations of Obovaria olivaria, with suggestions for future surveys. (28 January 2013) unpublished report to the Ontario Freshwater Mussel Recovery Team. 11 pp. Schueler, Frederick W. 2013. Villosa iris in the Salmon River: surveys past and future. (21January 2013) unpublished report to the Ontario Freshwater Mussel Recovery Team, 11 pp. Schueler, Frederick W. 2012. The search for persisting populations of Ligumia nasuta in Ontario, with suggestions for recovery. (22 December 2012) unpublished report to the Ontario Freshwater Mussel Recovery Team, 14 pp.
â&#x20AC;&#x201C; then the rest of the winter was spent in watercolour portraits of 6 mantle flap morphs of Lampsilis fasicola, the search for reference photographs for this host-&-mussel scene of the bottom of the Ottawa River, and the conversion of 3000 of our database records into a form suitable for absorption into the DFO database.
St Lawrence Tributaries: We summarized our work on â&#x20AC;&#x153;St Lawrence tributaries in Ontario as refuges for Unionid Musselsâ&#x20AC;? at the St Lawrence Institute's 20th Annual Symposium on the Great Lakes / St. Lawrence River Ecosystem: Protecting Water Ecosystems and Empowering Communities... in May 2013. Our idea has been that these populations were formerly the 'twigs' of the population 'trees,' but with the 'main trunks' wiped out by impoundment and Dreissena, the twigs are what we've got to find and sustain. This has been slow work, and it seems that diversity may often be restricted to a couple of kilometres between the Dreissena and headwaters. The diverse fauna in Lyn Creek is the only spectacular discovery so far, but we've got the Raisin Region Conservation Authority interested in sending up bagsfull of clam shells, and we keep checking a couple of new sites each year. This is the streetview of Hoople Creek at Hwy 401, generously populated by Lampsilis, though no Unionids were found at a few upstream bridges, and the mouth of the creek is overrun with Dreissena. The 3 km of the Creek between here and Hwy 2, the most likely reach for a population of Ligumia nasuta, remains to be explored.
Salmon River Citizen Science Project: The Friends of the Salmon River are helping us survey the Unionids of the Salmon River watershed in the summer of 2013. The initial call for volunteers yielded three people offering to participate, and since an introductory workshop a few more have joined in. The plan of this citizen science project is to sample shells along the length of the Salmon River and its tributaries. Sampling effort will be spread along the river by reference to a checklist of road-accessible points, which will be updated so observers can know which ones have been visited, and so we won't need GPS to obtain co-ordinates for visits to these sites, while canoeing along will provide extra coverage. The primary procedure will be to gather bagsfull of shells, dry and sort them to the observers' best ability, report the findings by e-mail, and then bring them to the final meeting in the fall. Volunteers will be operating independently through the summer, based on this protocol, some summer and more fall visits by us, and constant e-mail contact and the blog http://salmonrivermussels.blogspot.com .
2013 Kemptville District Species at Risk surveys: We have heard from the Canadian Wildlife Federation that we have received funds from the Species at Risk Stewardship Fund for surveys of SAR Unionids in the MNR's Kemptville district this summer. Depending on the amount of money that comes through and on water levels, for Ligumia nasuta we'll undertake 1) quantitative quadrat sampling of reaches of Lyn and Golden Creeks where the species is already known, 2) canoe survey of the Lyn/Jones creek estuary to establish the upstream limit of Zebra Mussels, and scout downstream reaches of tributary creeks for Unionids, 3) Canoe/wading survey of Lyn Creek from Lyn to the estuary with quantitative quadrat sampling to complete estimate of population size and habitats occupied), 4) canoe/wading surveys of other Saint Lawrence tributaries to seek L. nasuta and inventory their Unionid fauna. For Obovaria olivaria we propose to carefully survey the Ontario shore and off-shore sandbar islands of the Ottawa River for shells, by walking shores and canoe. The areas to be surveyed will be the Petrie Islands, the complex of sandbars off Bissetts Creek, Lac Georges, Baie des Atocas, islands upstream of the Hawkesbury bridge, and Voyageur Park. The species has so far been found only on Petrie Island and at Plaisance on the Quebec side of the river. This survey will find the places where Obovaria shells wash up on shore, or can be seen from the surface, and will contribute to our knowledge of all species in the river, including the alsonominally-rare Potamilus alatus and Leptodea fragilis, as well as the distribution of the invasive Orconectes rusticus (Rusty Crayfish) recently discovered in the lower Ottawa River.
Acknowledgments: Partners in these projects include â&#x20AC;&#x201C; Beaver Lake area Ligumia nasuta exploration, Canadian Wildlife Federation; 2012 Drought, Jennifer Tanner; Ottawa River, Trudy & Gerry Veaudrys; Northeastern Ontario dam sites, Linda Heron & Ontario Rivers Alliance; Lake Erie; Cheryl & Hans Schonewille, Marie Janicke, and Bruce & Beatrice Bowyer; Malacological Biography & portraits; Fisheries and Oceans Canada; St Lawrence Tributaries, Brian Hickey & St Lawrence Institute; Salmon River Project, Friends of the Salmon River; 2013 Species at Risk surveys, Canadian Wildlife Federation & Species at Risk Stewardship Fund.