Print PageThe New Zealand mud snail, Potamopyrgus antipodarum, is an invasive species that has spread worldwide including populations in the Laurentian Great Lakes and the western United States. The purpose of this study was to examine the biomass of an invasive clone and New Zealand native clones by analyzing the mass-length relationship. Twelve native clones were obtained from different lakes in New Zealand, and one invasive clone from the Great Lakes was obtained from a stream in shallow lotic waters near Lake Ontario. For each clonal population, body length, organic mass, and ash-free dry mass (AFDM) were measured. The body length and AFDM was plotted for each population, and a mass-length regression equation was determined.
Results/Conclusions
It was found that mass increases with length exponentially for all populations. A preliminary analysis of the data suggests that ploidy and population do influence the mass-length relationship.
