Freshwater Mussels (Bivalvia: Unionidae) of the Ohio and Erie Canal, Cuyahoga Valley National Parl, Ohio PDF
Preview Freshwater Mussels (Bivalvia: Unionidae) of the Ohio and Erie Canal, Cuyahoga Valley National Parl, Ohio
KIRTLANDIA The Cleveland Museum of Natural History July 2002 Number 53:35-36 NOTE FRESHWATER MUSSELS (BIVALVIA: UNIONIDAE) OF THE OHIO & ERIE CANAL, CUYAHOGA VALLEY NATIONAL PARK, OHIO MICHAELJ.S.TEVESZ,LOUIERUNDO,ANDROBERTA.KREBS DepartmentofBiological,Geological,andEnvironmentalSciences ClevelandStateUniversity,Cleveland,Ohio44115-2406 [email protected] Freshwatermussels(Bivalvia: Unionidae)havebecome recentlydeadanddyingmussels.EighthundredfourteenP. establishedincanalsinOhioandtheeasternUnitedStatesin grandisand48T.parvuswerecountedina2.4kmlongsec- addition to their indigenous habitat of permanent natural tionofdrycanalbed(Figure1). lakesandstreams.Forexample,Higgins(1858,p.550)noted Sectionsofthecanalweredrainedagain,duringthesum- thefollowingfortheColumbusfeedercanaloftheOhio& merof2000,foraconstructionprojectinvolvingtheTinkers ErieCanal:“Manyspecieshavetraversedthewholelength Creekaqueductwhereitcrossesthecanal. FromJune 16 ofthe canal, and many species there thrive and become throughJuly17,a3.3kmlongsectionofdrycanalbedwith abundantwhicharequiterareintheadjacentrivers.”Sterki anareaofapproximately33,000nrwasvisuallysurveyedto (1907)suggestedthattheunionidspeciesElliptiocomplana- providenewdataonmusseloccurrence.Thesurveyedarea ta (Lightfoot) may have gained access to the Tuscarawas ofthe canal extended from the northern boundary ofthe RiverfromLakeErieviatheOhio&ErieCanal,although CuyahogaValleyNationalPark, atRocksideRoad, tothe Barber(1982)suggestsotheravenuesofdispersal.Inaddi- TinkersCreekaqueduct(Figure1).Thissurveyrevealedthe tion,itwasobservedthattheStillwaterspeciesE.complana- presenceof838P. grandis, 11 T.parvus,and2U.imbecil- ta, Strophitus undulatus (Say), and Utterbackia imbecillis lis,allfreshlydeadordying.Ofthese,20P.grandisand3 (Say)“seemtothrive”inpartsofthecanalintheChesapeake T.parvuswerefoundaspartofa“middenaccumulation” & Ohio Canal National Historical Park, Maryland leftbehindbyananimal.Themiddenwasassociatedwith (Anonymous, 1998). Nevertheless, published information what appeared to be a muskrat burrow and was located ontheunionidpopulationsofcanalsintheUnitedStatesis about1mabovethecanalbottomontheeastbank,rough- scarce.FornortheasternOhio,Smith(2000)andSmithetal. ly 1kmsouthofRocksideRoad.ThespeciesU.imbecillis, (2002)reportedthatsectionsoftheOhio&ErieCanallocat- while rare in the canal, is more common in lakes in the ed within theCuyahogaValleyNationalPark supporteda lower Cuyahoga River valley (Smith, 2000; Smith et al. thriving freshwater mussel population composed of the 2002)andwithintheCuyahogaRiverinitsupperreaches species Pyganodon grandis (Say) and Toxolasma parvus (Huehner, 1985;Hoggarth, 1990). (Barnes).Thecanal,whichisnormallydifficulttosurveyfor Freshwater mussels (“Un/o”) were reported from the musselsbecauseofsteepbanks,vegetativecover,andasoft, Ohio & Erie Canal as early as the 1830s. Wied-Neuwied muddysubstrate,hadbeendrainedlocallyduringthesum- (1906,p. 150)describedthefollowingforlateJune, 1834: mer of 1998 for repairs, revealing a large population of “AfterweleftCirclevillewesaw,onthecanal,agreatnum- 36 TEVESZANDOTHERS No.53 Acknowledgments The support ofthe George Gund Foundation and a Cleveland State University supplemental EFFRD grant toMJSTare gratefully acknowledged.This manuscript was improvedbyreviewsprovidedby M.A. Hoggarth andJ.B.Keiper. References Anonymous. 1998.FreshwatermusselsofC&OCanalNational HistoricalPark.C&OCanal NationalHistoricalParkNature Series(pamphlet). Barber,R.J.1982.TheindigenousdistributionofElliptiocomplanata inOhio(U.S.A.):archeologicalevidence.Nautilus,96:130-131. Dean,G.W. 1890. DistributionofUnionidaeinthethreerivers Figure 1. The lower Cuyahoga River and its tributaries, Mahoning,Cuyahogaand Tuscarawas.Nautilus,4:20-22. includingTinkersCreek. ThesearchregionoftheOhio&Erie Higgins, F. 1858. A catalogue of the shell-bearing species of Canal(magnifiedfordetail)coverstheportionofthecanalthat Mollusca,inhabitingthevicinityofColumbus,Ohio,withsome parallelstheriverbetweenrivermile 11andrivermile13,as remarks thereon. Ohio State Board ofAgriculture with an measuredfromthemouthoftheCuyahogaRiveratLakeErie. AbstractoftheProceedingsoftheCountyAgriculturalSociety’s 12*AnnualReport,for1857:548-555. Hoggarth,M.A.1990.AstudyoftheUnionidaeoftheupperCuyahoga bwehricohfswheerllesv(eUrnyiofr),eqoufeantgrheeerne;ismhocsotloor,fwtihtehmdwaerkreerfsltoraitpiensg, RRievseoru.rcUensp,ubDliviisshieodnfoifnaNlarteuproarltAtroetahseaOnhdiPoreDseepravrest,meCnotluomfbNuast.ural withouttheanimal,whichwas,however,founddeadinsome Huehner,M.K.1985.Asurveyoftheunionidmusselspeciesofthe of them.” The species he described is likely P. grandis, upperCuyahogaRiver. UnpublishedfinalreporttotheOhio which has the vernacular name of “giant floater.” This DaenpdaPrrtemseernvteso,fCNoaltuumrbaulsR.esources,DivisionofNaturalAreas speciescolonizedthecanalalmostimmediately,becausethe northernsegmentofthecanaloriginatingatClevelandwas Krebs,R.A.,H.M.Griffith,andM.J.S.Tevesz.2002.Astudyof openedinJuly,1827,andthesectionaroundCirclevillewas theUnionidaeofTinkers Creek,Ohio.Kirtlandia,53:19-25. openedinOctober, 1831 (Scheiber, 1969,p.51).Otherhis- Scheiber,H.N.1969.Ohiocanalera:acasestudyofgovernmentand toricalinformationonthemusselfaunaofthecanalincludes theeconomy,1820-1861.OhioUniversityPress,Athens.430p. areportby Dean (1890) ofthe occurrence ofthe species Smith,D.C.2000.AsurveyoffreshwatermolluscsintheCuyahoga Lasmigonacomplanata(Barnes). ValleyNationalRecreationArea.Unpublishedmaster’sthesis, These recent and historical data have the following ClevelandStateUniversity.82p. bimepelnicaatviioanbsl:eFhiarbsittaotffalolr,mtuhseseOlhsi.oI&naEdrdiietiCoan,natlhehasspelcoinegs SmitAh,suDr.veCy.,ofMf.reAs.hwGaatteesr,mRu.sAs.elKsr(ebUsn,ioanniddaMe.)aJn.dS.oTtehveersmzo.ll2u00s2c.s cuisanahnagabeli,tbiaennigndgtthheaecnmaonbraeelcomlmoaityincglhiakaveemhoacrbhieatnaltgeendtduicrilininkrgeesihtpasobinptseaertitoiondtiohtefs SterMMikniio,sltclhVe.eulsC1lc9uaa0ny7eoa.ofhuAoOsghpCiarooenV.ltairlPmilribeonuycaterNieyaodtnciisanotgNnasoall.oogPf8ua.etr3hkoe1.fOtOp.hhheiilooanBStdiaoatlenodgAifccraaeldsheS-umwryavteoeyrf abandonment. For example, L. complanata is a typical Science,4:367-402. riverinespeciesandinhabitsupperreachesoftheCuyahoga Rivertoday,butnolongerthecanal.Moreover,P.grandis Wieidn-tNheeuwiniteedri,orMo.fAN.orP.th19A0m6.erMiacxai,mi1l8i3a2n-,1P8r3i4n.ceInofGWoileddT’hswtariatveesl,s andU. imbecillisalsooccurinlakesandpondswithinthe Reuben,ed.,Earlywesterntravels,1748-1846,aseriesofanno- nationalpark,althoughtheformerapparentlycolonizedthe tatedreprints... A.H.ClarkCo.,Cleveland,v.22-25. canal shortly afteritopened. Toxolasmaparvushasbeen observed only in the canal within the national park, although two spent, disarticulated valves were reported fromtheupperreachesofTinkersCreekoutsideofthepark boundaries by Krebs et al. (2002). Finally, this study demonstratesthatthecanalprovideshabitatforabundant mussel populations within the CuyahogaValley National Park. Therefore, careful management of the canal will assuretheircontinuedexistenceinthepark.
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