next message in archive
next message in thread
previous message in archive
previous message in thread
Index of Subjects
Index of Subjects "None" means I saw no living specimens. Sorry for not being clear. Nancy On 2014-05-16, at 4:59 PM, Fred Schueler <bckcdb@istar.ca> wrote: > On 5/16/2014 1:06 PM, David McCorquodale wrote: >> Muskrats are important predators of freshwater mussels in eastern North >> America, including NS. Often they pile shells in middens. >> >> In Blacketts Lake and Pottle Lake in CBRM piles of shells of several >> species of freshwater mussels, including the Yellow Lamp Mussel, are >> obvious. > > * these URLs just took me to a general flckr site, not to the individual photos. > > Muskrats and Beavers can process astonishing numbers of mussels, and often leave the shells quite undamaged - and nonhuman mammals, with weak connections of cultural memory can "discover" a food source and use it to depletion for one generation with the descendents never learning about it, giving the prey time to build up to high density. > > Freezing or anoxia can kill mussels, though they'd die buried in the substrate, and wouldn't be expected to be on the beach this early - also low water levels can cause mass mortality. Without being able to see the pictures, I can't say what species these are, but if they're Anodonta or Pyganodon "Floaters" the light-weight shells would be more likely to work loose from the substrate and blow onto a lee shore. > > fred. > ============================================== > >> >> On Fri, May 16, 2014 at 1:35 PM, nancy dowd <nancypdowd@gmail.com >> <mailto:nancypdowd@gmail.com>> wrote: >> >> Water levels have dropped just enough on L Torment to show about 6" >> of beach in places now but the shore has been completely submerged >> since last October. The number of mussel shells seen in these >> pictures is unusual: >> >> At the end of the path they are visible as far as you can see out >> into the water: >> https://www.flickr.com/photos/92981528@N08/14196083311/ >> >> And it is this way the whole way along the shore. Another view 40' >> along the submerged beach: >> https://www.flickr.com/photos/92981528@N08/14012727849/ >> >> This side of the lake has the prevailing onshore winds and waves and >> the shells are starting to collect in the exposed pockets: >> https://www.flickr.com/photos/92981528@N08/14199406975/ >> >> Why so many empty mussel shells? Would the winter somehow have been >> hard on them- ice or cold or oxygen levels? Doesn't look like >> predation to me- too many shells. This is the first year I have ever >> seen anything like this. >> >> Any ideas? >> >> Nancy >> >> >> > > > -- > ------------------------------------------------------------ > Frederick W. Schueler & Aleta Karstad > Daily Paintings - http://karstaddailypaintings.blogspot.com/ > Vulnerable Watersheds - http://vulnerablewaters.blogspot.ca/ > study our books - http://pinicola.ca/books/index.htm > RR#2 Bishops Mills, Ontario, Canada K0G 1T0 > on the Smiths Falls Limestone Plain 44* 52'N 75* 42'W > (613)258-3107 <bckcdb at istar.ca> http://pinicola.ca/ > ------------------------------------------------------------
next message in archive
next message in thread
previous message in archive
previous message in thread
Index of Subjects