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A comprehensive mussel survey of the Illinois River, 1993-95 Scott D. Whitney, K. Douglas Blodgett, and Richard E. Sparks December 1997 TheeditsinthetextweredonebyRichardandRuthSparkson27February2010. Digitized by the Internet Archive in 2010 with funding from CARLI: Consortium of Academic and Research Libraries in Illinois http://www.archive.org/details/comprehensivemusOOwhit Disclaimer The findings, conclusions, and views expressed herein are those ofthe researchers and are not necessarily the position ofthe Illinois Natural History Survey or the IllinoisDepartmentofNaturalResources. - - - . Table of Contents Page ListofTables ii ListofFigures iii ListofAppendices iv Executive Summary. 1 Introduction 2 StudyArea 4 Methods 4 SamplingTechniques 6 MusselProcessing 9 ZebraMussels 10 EnclosureStudies 11 DataAnalysis 12 Diversity... 12 Abundance — — —.._._ — — — 13 RSeizceruaintdmeAngteDistributions - — — - - - — — — -- 1144 Growth -.-.-.. — 14 ZebraMusselInfestation — ...— :_.. 15 Mortality __ - - —- - - - 15 DisplacementExperiment — _ - — 15 RecentDeadExperiment - — ..— - - - 16 SamplingEfficiency __ — — - - — — 16 TrendAnalysis _ _._ _._ 16 Results and Discussion 16 Diversity(AppendixB) 16 Abundance(AppendixC) 18 Recruitment(AppendixD) 20 SizeandAgeDistributions(AppendixE) 20 Growth(AppendixF) 20 ZebraMusselInfestation(AppendixG) 22 Mortality(AppendixH) 23 DisplacementExperiment 23 RecentDeadExperiment 24 SamplingEfficiency(AppendixI) 25 TrendAnalysis 26 ManagementRecommendations 27 Acknowledgments 30 References 30 Appendices followingpage32 List of Tables Table Description Page 1. Changes in mussel fauna ofthe Illinois River over the past century. Species list based on records of live individuals collected during scientificsurveys 3 Number and time expended for the three primary sampling techniques used to collect mussels in each of the five navigationalreachesoftheIllinoisRiver, 1993-95. 3. Number and relative abundance of mussel speciescollected live or recently dead (RD) from the mainstem ofthe Illinois River, 1993-95 16 4. Rankingofnavigational reachesandrepeatedlysampled(RS) quadratsitesbasedontheanalysisof (a)speciesaccumulation rates, (b)rarefractioncurves, (c) species abundanceplots, and (d)Simpsons'sdiversityindex. 17 5. Results ofdisplacement experimentconducted from 20 April (start) through 10 October (end) 1994 at three Illinois River studysites,IRM50.1,66.8,and 162.3 24 6. Resultsfromrecentdeadexperiment.Thisstudywasinitiated on24April 1995 atIRM50.1withspecimensbeingrecovered ontwodates(a)20July,RecoveryI(87days)and(b)4October, RecoveryII(163 days). 25 7. Samplingefficiencyofthreemusselcollectiontechniquesused inthe 1993-95 surveyoftheIllinoisRiver. 26 8. Theoretical reproductivepotential (TRP)ofthreecommercial species in the three reaches ofthe lowerIllinois Riverunder current and recommended minimum size restrictions for commercialharvest 29 List of Figures Figure Description Page 1. MapoftheIllinoisRiverdrainagebasin. 3 2. Elevation cross-sectional profile ofthe Illinois Waterway, rivermile RM (RM)0.0to327.2. TheIllinoisRivermainstemextendsfrom 0.0 to273 andincludesfivenavigationreaches 5 3. SchematicdiagramofthesamplecollectionpatternatIRM5.5, oneoffiverepeatedlysampled(RS) quadratsitesinvestigated duringthe 1993-95mussel surveyoftheIllinoisRiver. 6 4. Total number of mussel species collected during comprehensivemussel surveysoftheIllinoisRivermainstem duringthelast 125years. 28 5. Average number ofmussels caught per 5 minutes offishing with the exploratory crowfoot brail bar in the 1966-69 and 1993-95musselsurveysoftheIllinoisRiver. 28 in