Special concern mussels found in northern Minnesota watershed

 

Mark Hove, Jodi Gustafson, Jennifer Sieracki, Jennifer Kurth, Parnell Mahoney, Melissa Tenpas,
& Susan Weller. 1998. Triannual Unionid Report 16: 32.
 
Univ. of Minnesota, Bell Museum, 1980 Folwell Ave., St. Paul, MN 55108. (612) 624-3019, email address: Mark.Hove@fw.umn.edu
Very little survey work has been conducted in the Lake of the Woods drainage in northern Minnesota (Graf 1997). The Little Fork River, a subdrainage in the watershed, is 1,849 mi2 in size, nearly all of it flowing through the bed of Glacial Lake Agassiz. The Little Fork River, flows north, to the Rainy River; Minnesota's border with Canada. This watershed is relatively undisturbed when compared with the rest of the state. Pine and aspen forests cover much of the land in the basin, with a small number of ranches (Waters 1977).

Twenty-five sites within the Little Fork River watershed were surveyed using snorkeling equipment and SCUBA. Lampsilis siliquoidea was observed at nearly every site. Pyganodon grandis, Anodontoides ferussacianus, and Lampsilis cardium were observed at thirteen sites. Ligumia recta, a special concern species in Minnesota, were found at nearly half the sites. The other special concern species encountered, Lasmigona compressa, was observed at five sites distributed widely throughout the basin. Lasmigona complanata and Strophitus undulatus were collected at six and two locations respectively. Live mussel densities ranged between 0.4-7 mussels/m2 in the Little Fork River (Figure 1).

 
 
Figure 1. Live mussel densities in the Little Fork River, Minnesota.

Financial and logistic support for this survey was provided by: the Minnesota Legislature, ML 1997 Chapter 216, Section 15, Subdivision 15b as recommended by the Legislative Commission on Minnesota Resources from the Minnesota Environmental and Natural Resources Trust Fund, University of Minnesota's Undergraduate Research Opportunities Program, Science Centrum, the James Ford Bell Museum of Natural History, and Chantel Cook, Jeremy Cable, Nancy Berlin, and Brenda Stauffer of the National Forest Service.

Literature Cited

Graf, D. L. 1997. Distribution of unionoid (Bivalvia) faunas in Minnesota, USA. The Nautilus 110(2): 45-54.

Waters, T. F. 1977. The streams and rivers of Minnesota. University of Minnesota Press, Minneapolis, Minnesota. 373 pp.