The California floater mussel does a surprising amount of travel - for a bivalve. First it gets ejected from its parent's shell into the wide watery wilderness. Then it leads a nomad's life clamped on the fins or gills of a fish. Once it's all grown up, the mussel goes to work filtering the water, keeping it clean for all the life that depends on it.
Check out Antarctic Extremes on PBS Terra: • What Do You Eat in Ant...
DEEP LOOK is a ultra-HD (4K) short video series created by KQED San Francisco and presented by PBS Digital Studios. See the unseen at the very edge of our visible world. Explore big scientific mysteries by going incredibly small.
---
California floater mussels have evolved an ingenious method of launching their larvae, or glochidia, into the water, where they clamp onto a fish gill or fin. The larvae hitch a ride on the fish for a few weeks, absorbing nutrients from their hosts, until they drop off and begin life as a young mussel on the lake bed.
If they’re lucky, the larvae on the fish will make it to the juvenile stage, and grow up to be hardworking living water filters.
Adult mussels can live ten years. They can filter up to 38 gallons of water each per day.
The mussels have two openings to take in and excrete water. Inside them, water passes through their gills, which are lined with thousands of cilia, tiny arms that filter out the nutrients and particles.
Thousands of mussels in a small lake or waterway can improve overall water health and clarity, according to researchers. Also, their industrious filtration and sensitivity to pollutants makes them reliable indicators of freshwater quality. In 2013 the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency cut the water quality standard for ammonia content in half, based on research done with freshwater mussels.
Mussels share their watery homes with a world class array of freshwater fish, snails, crayfish, and insects.
--- Do all mussels need fish to fully develop?
Many of the 300 or so other North American freshwater mussel species require one specific species of fish to help spread their numbers, some of which have evolved incredibly realistic fish lures, but the California floaters don’t seem to be so picky.
--- Are freshwater mussels endangered?
The California floater mussel is just one of about 300 species of native freshwater mussels in North America, approximately three-quarters of which are threatened, endangered or a species of special concern.
--- Are these native California floater mussels different from the invasive freshwater mussel species?
Invasive freshwater mussels like the Asian clam, zebra mussels and quagga mussels all attach to surfaces and inside pipes with sticky threads, wreaking havoc on boats, docks, water treatment plants and power plant cooling systems from Lake Tahoe to the Great Lakes.
---+ Read the entire article on KQED Science:
www.kqed.org/science/1961648/...
---+ Shoutout!
🏆Congratulations🏆 to the following fans on our Deep Look Community Tab for being the first five to correctly identify the - glochidia - mussel larvae!
Gavin Bock
Tristan Simpson
Mohammed Suhail
Sampson Ng
MrSpodes
---+ Thank you to our Top Patreon Supporters ($10+ per month)!
Alex
Aurora
Aurora Mitchell
Bethany
Bill Cass
Blanca Vides
Burt Humburg
Caitlin McDonough
Carlos Carrasco
Chris B Emrick
Chris Murphy
Cindy McGill
Companion Cube
Daisuke Goto
dane rosseter
Daniel Weinstein
David Deshpande
Dean Skoglund
Edwin Rivas
Egg-Roll
Elizabeth Ann Ditz
Geidi Rodriguez
Gerardo Alfaro
Guillaume Morin
Joao Ascensao
Josh Kuroda
Joshua Murallon Robertson
Justin Bull
Kallie Moore
Karen Reynolds
Kendall Rasmussen
Kristy Freeman
KW
Laura Sanborn
Laurel Przybylski
Leonhardt Wille
Levi Cai
Louis O'Neill
luna
Mary Truland
monoirre
Natalie Banach
Nathan Wright
Nicolette Ray
Noreen Herrington
Osbaldo Olvera
Pamela Parker
Richard Shalumov
Rick Wong
Robert Amling
Robert Warner
Roberta K Wright
Sarah Khalida Mohamad
Sayantan Dasgupta
Sharon Merritt
Shebastian Reyes
Shelley Pearson Cranshaw
Silvan Wendland
Sonia Tanlimco
Steven
SueEllen McCann
Supernovabetty
Syniurge
TierZoo
Titania Juang
Two Box Fish
WhatzGames
---+ Follow KQED Science and Deep Look:
Instagram: / kqedscience
Twitter: / kqedscience
KQED Science on kqed.org: www.kqed.org/science
---+ About KQED
KQED, an NPR and PBS affiliate in San Francisco, CA, serves Northern California and beyond with a public-supported alternative to commercial TV, Radio and web media.
Funding for Deep Look is provided in part by PBS Digital Studios. Deep Look is a project of KQED Science, the largest science and environment reporting unit in California. KQED Science is supported by The National Science Foundation, the Dirk and Charlene Kabcenell Foundation, the Vadasz Family Foundation, the Gordon and Betty Moore Foundation, Campaign 21 and the members of KQED.