Responses of newly settled juvenile mussels to bed shear stress: implications for dispersal
Nice mussels! But can they stand the stress?! This was the question recently asked by PhD student Sarah French (McCauley Lab) in her paper “Responses of newly settled juvenile mussels to bed shear stress: implications for dispersal” in Freshwater Science. In this study, Sarah examined the mechanisms for dispersal by four species of juvenile freshwater mussels in response to hydrodynamics. Bed shear stress, the force of water acting parallel to a surface, was manipulated using a jet to assess which llevels relocated mussels downstream. Some species avoided passive relocation below a shear stress threshold by adhering to a surface with their foot. Others did not adhere and were carried away downstream. These results suggest a species-specific mechanism for habitat selection at local scales. Congratulations Sarah on this exciting mussels research!