Belarus Briefing

From January, 1995 (update #23)

MINSK, Belarus - North American zebra mussel researchers Dave Garton (Indiana University-Kokomo), Ladd Johnson (Laval University) and Dianna Padilla (UW- Madison) presented papers in October at a conference at the Institute of Zoology of the Belarussian Academy of Science in Minsk, Belarus. Prior to the conference they visited a hydrobiological research station on Lake Naroch, a large oligotrophic lake that became infested with zebra mussels 10 years ago. The American researchers' host for the visit was Dr. Alexander Karatayev, chief of the Lakes Research Laboratory at the Belarussian State University. Karatayev said many Unionid mussels were killed during the intial zebra mussel invasion. During his brief stay in Belarus, Garton observed that zebra mussels were continuing to colonize Unionids in Lake Naroch. However, he noted that zebra mussels have not yet caused the Unionids to become extinct in that lake. In fact, the zebra mussels' effect on Unionids was mixed. "At one site in Lake Naroch," Garton said, "nearly all Unionids I collected had significant encrustations. But at another site near a stream outlet very few were encrusted." Garton also observed that zebra mussel population densities in Lake Naroch seemed lower than in Lake Erie or Lake Wawasee, two infested North American lakes with which he's familiar. He pointed out that nutrients and primary production may be insufficient in Lake Naroch to sustain high zebra mussel densities. All three American scientists said they were surprised by the lack of recently recruited (i.e., small) zebra mussels in Lake Naroch. The mussel population appeared to be dominated by older age classes rather than younger cohorts, which in autumn often appear in the greatest abundance in North American lakes. Garton also said that based on distinct "growth check lines," zebra mussels in Lake Naroch appeared to live longer (up to five years) than in North American lakes.

ID: 199501-20.

The Zebra Mussel Update was a 4- to 8-page quarterly national newsletter published by the University of Wisconsin Sea Grant Institute from May 1990 through May 1997. The ZMU documented the spread of the zebra mussel -- an exotic nuisance mussel -- through North America's freshwater environments, especially the Great Lakes, and on efforts to control it.