Print PageBithynia tentaculata is an invasive aquatic snail that has recently spread to the upper Mississippi River from the Great Lakes region. The invasive capacity of this species often leads to its dominance within the mollusk community. Moreover, B. tentaculata harbors a number of parasitic trematodes that have rippling effects throughout the ecosystem due to their detrimental impacts on thousands of migrating waterfowl every year. Unfortunately, even though these organisms are directly disrupting general ecosystem stability and economics in the upper Midwest, little is actually known about the factors responsible for successful snail colonization and subsequent parasite transmission to hosts. To address these shortcomings, we have utilized a number of complimentary approaches (field collections, and experimental manipulations) to 1) investigate the processes underlying distributions of B. tentaculata and its parasites, and 2) generate biologically relevant parameters for developing mathematical models to predict future patterns of disease.
Results/Conclusions
Through quantitative field sampling and experimentation we have documented extensive spatial and temporal variability in snail distributions which may be dictated, in part, by substrate size and water velocity. In addition, we have shown through both field collections and experimentation that the parasites are specific for particular snail species at the first stage of the life cycle but can infect a number of host species during subsequent stages. Not only have these empirical results helped us to better understand this particular system, they have also provided us with parameters for use in mathematical models aimed at predicting disease persistence in the upper Mississippi River.
