Thesis
Growth and condition of the invasive Asian clam, Corbicula fluminea, in the lower Columbia River, USA
Washington State University
Master of Science (MS), Washington State University
05/2020
DOI:
https://doi.org/10.7273/000004036
Handle:
https://hdl.handle.net/2376/124845
Abstract
The Asian clam, Corbicula fluminea, is a broadly distributed and abundant invasive species, yet many aspects of its population biology (e.g., growth and condition in relation to environmental variables) are not well understood. Based on previous research by other investigators, we hypothesized that abundance, population growth rate, and individual growth rate of C. fluminea would increase with temperature, chlorophyll-a, and dissolved oxygen. We sampled C. fluminea at two sites (Kalama and Blurock) in the lower Columbia River (CR), USA. Modal progression analyses indicated a life span of 2-3 years, with new young-of-the-year recruits (< 15 mm), one-year old (13-25 mm), two-year old (20-33mm), and three-year old (30-43mm) clams present. A generalized linear mixed model (GLMM) predicting the abundance of C. fluminea indicated a significant negative association with chlorophyll-a concentration, whereas a GLMM predicting the population growth rate of C. fluminea indicated a significant positive association with dissolved oxygen. The GLMM predicting the individual growth rate of C. fluminea indicated the individual growth rate was not significantly related to any individual environmental variable, however the interaction between temperature and year was significant. The morphological condition (weight at length) of C. fluminea varied significantly between our two sites, with smaller clams (< 9 mm) having greater condition at Kalama and larger clams (>10 mm) having greater condition at Blurock. Overall, this study emphasizes that the population biology of C. fluminea in the CR is similar in many regards to other populations studied in temperate regions of North America, South America and Europe, but that important spatial differences in population biology can occur between sites separated by 60 km within the same river system.
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Details
- Title
- Growth and condition of the invasive Asian clam, Corbicula fluminea, in the lower Columbia River, USA
- Creators
- Summer J. Henricksen
- Contributors
- Stephen Bollens (Advisor) - Washington State University, School of the Environment (CAS)
- Awarding Institution
- Washington State University
- Academic Unit
- School of the Environment (CAS)
- Theses and Dissertations
- Master of Science (MS), Washington State University
- Publisher
- Washington State University
- Identifiers
- 99900890794401842
- Language
- English
- Resource Type
- Thesis