Freshwater pearl mussel

Freshwater pearl mussel
The exterior of the shell of Margaritifera margaritifera
Conservation status
Endangered (IUCN 2.3)[1]
Scientific classification
Kingdom:	Animalia
Phylum:	Mollusca
Class:	Bivalvia
Order:	Unionoida
Family:	Margaritiferidae
Genus:	Margaritifera
Species:	M. margaritifera
Binomial name
Margaritifera margaritifera Linnaeus, 1758

The freshwater pearl mussel, scientific name Margaritifera margaritifera, is an endangered species of freshwater mussel, an aquatic bivalve mollusc in the family Margaritiferidae.

The name "freshwater pearl mussel" should not be construed to mean that other freshwater mussels do not harbor pearls or cannot be used as mother of pearl. In fact, most cultured pearls today come from Hyriopsis species in Asia, or Amblema species in North America, both members of the related family Unionidae; pearls are also found in genus unio. The interior of the shell of this species has thick nacre. It is capable of making fine quality pearls and was historically exploited in the search for pearls from wild sources. In recent times, the Russian malacologist Valeriy Zyuganov received worldwide reputation after he discovered that the Pearl Mussel exhibited negligible senescence and he determined that it had a maximum lifespan of 210–250 years.^[2][3] The data of V.V. Zyuganov have been confirmed by the Finnish malacologists^[4] and gained general acceptance.

Subspecies

Subspecies within the species Margaritifera magaritifera include:

• Margaritifera margaritifera margaritifera (Linnaeus, 1758)
• Margaritifera margaritifera parvula (Haas, 1908)
• Margaritifera margaritifera durrovensis Phillips, 1928 - critically endangered subspecies in Ireland.^[5] Synonym: Margaritifera durrovensis. This subspecies is mentioned in annexes II and V of Habitats Directive as Margaritifera durrovensis.

Physical description

The anatomy of Margaritifera margaritifera
1. Posterior adductor muscle
2. Anterior adductor muscle
3. Frontal gill
4. Back gill
5. Exhalant aperture
6. Inhalant aperture
7. Foot
8. Pseudotooth
9. The hingeline and ligament
10. Mantle
11. The shell's thickest part, the umbo

One of the longest-living invertebrates in existence,^[6] the freshwater pearl mussel has, like all bivalve molluscs, a shell consisting of two parts that are hinged together, which can be closed to protect the animal’s soft body within.^[7] The shell is large, heavy and elongated,^[8][9] typically yellowish-brown in colour when young and becoming darker with age.^[6] Older parts of the shell often appear corroded, an identifying feature of this mussel species.^[10] The inner surface of the shell is pearl white, sometimes tinged with attractive iridescent colours.^[8] Like all molluscs, the freshwater pearl mussel has a muscular 'foot';^[7] this very large, white foot enables the mussel to move slowly and bury itself within the bottom substrate of its freshwater habitat.^[8][9]

Distribution

Group of live Margaritifera margaritifera in a river bed in Sweden

The native distribution of this species is Holarctic. The freshwater pearl mussel can be found on both sides of the Atlantic,^[8] from the Arctic and temperate regions of western Russia, through Europe to north-eastern North America.^[6]

• More than half the world's recruiting population exists in Scotland with populations in more than 50 rivers, mainly in the Highlands, although illegal harvesting has seriously affected their survival. 75% of sites surveyed in 2010 had suffered "significant and lasting criminal damage" and in response the police and Scottish Natural Heritage have launched a campaign to protect the species.^[11][12]
• North America: eastern Canada and New England at northwestern of the United States
• Europe, including:
  • Austria
  • Belgium
  • Czech Republic - critically endangered (CR).^[13][14] In Bohemia, probably locally extinct in Moravia.^[15] Listed in Decree for implementation, No. 395/1992 Sb. (Czech code) (in Czech: Vyhláška 395/1992 Sb. ve znění vyhl. 175/2006 Sb.) as Critically Threatened species. Its Conservation status in 2004-2006 is bad (U2) in report for European commission in accordance with Habitats Directive.^[16]
  • Denmark
  • Estonia
  • France^[17]
  • Germany - critically endangered (vom Aussterben bedroht).^[18] Listed as strictly protected species in annex 1 in Bundesartenschutzverordnung.
  • Great Britain. This species has been fully protected in the United Kingdom under the Wildlife and Countryside Act 1981 since 1998 and partly protected according to section 9(1) since 1991.^[19]
  • Ireland. The Cladagh (Swanlinbar) river contains one of the largest populations surviving in Northern Ireland, estimated minimum 10,000, confined to a 6 km stretch of undisturbed river in the middle section.^[20]
  • Luxembourg
  • Lithuania - extinct
  • Poland - extinct^[21][22]
  • Iberian Peninsula (Portugal and Spain)
  • Fennoscandia - vulnerable in Finland and Norway, endangered in Sweden ^[23][24][25]. Very rare in southern Finland, more common in the north. Widespread but not common in Norway; Norway is considered to host a large proportion of the European stock. Rare in Sweden ^[26]. Also in Kola Peninsula and Karelia (Russia) (see below).
  • Russian Federation - in the rivers of the White Sea basin of the Arkhangelsk and Murmansk Regions. It is east border of the area of distribution M. margaritifera.

Habitat

Clean, fast-flowing streams and rivers are required for the freshwater pearl mussel,^[6][8] where it lives buried or partly buried in fine gravel and coarse sand,^[6] generally in water at depths between 0.5 and 2 metres, but sometimes at greater depths.^[8] Clean gravel and sand is essential, particularly for juvenile freshwater pearl mussels, for if the stream or river bottom becomes clogged with silt, they cannot obtain oxygen and will die.^[8] Also essential is the presence of a healthy population of salmonids, a group of fish including salmon and trout, on which the freshwater pearl mussel relies for part of its life cycle.^[8]

Lifecycle

life cycle

Capable of living for over an incredible 200 years,^[27] the freshwater pearl mussel begins life as a tiny larva, measuring just 0.6 to 0.7 millimetres long, which is ejected into the water from an adult mussel in a mass of one to four million other larvae. This remarkable event takes place over just one to two days, sometime between July and September.^[6] The larvae, known as glochidia, resemble tiny mussels, but their minute shells are held open until they snap shut on a suitable host. The host of freshwater pearl mussel larvae are juvenile fish from the salmonid family, which includes the Atlantic salmon and sea trout.^[6] The chances of a larva encountering a suitable fish is very low,^[10] and thus nearly all are swept away and die; only a few are inhaled by an Atlantic salmon or sea trout, where they snap shut onto the fish’s gills.^[6]

Attached to the gills of a fish, the glochidia live and grow in this oxygen-rich environment until the following May or June, when they drop off. The juvenile must land on clean gravely or sandy substrates if it is to successfully grow.^[6] Attached to the substrate, juvenile freshwater pearl mussels typically burrow themselves completely into the sand or gravel, while adults are generally found with a third of their shell exposed.^[6] Should they become dislodged, freshwater pearl mussels can rebury themselves, and are also capable of moving slowly across sandy sediments, using their large, muscular foot.^[6]

The freshwater pearl mussel grows extremely slowly,^[10] inhaling water through exposed siphons, and filtering out tiny organic particles on which it feeds.^[6] It is thought that in areas where this species was once abundant, this filter feeding acted to clarify the water, benefiting other species which inhabited the rivers and streams.^[6] Maturity is reached at an age of 10 to 15 years,^[6] followed by a reproductive period of over 75 years in which about 200 million larvae can be produced.^[10] In early summer each year, around June and July, male freshwater pearl mussels release sperm into the water, where they are inhaled by female mussels. Inside the female, the fertilised eggs develop in a pouch on the gills for several weeks, until temperature or other environmental cue triggers the female to release the larvae into the surrounding water.^[6]

The interior of the shell of Margaritifera margaritifera, showing the nacre

Threats and conservation

Once the most abundant bivalve mollusc in ancient rivers around the world, numbers of the freshwater pearl mussel are now declining in all countries and this species is nearly extinct in many areas.^[8] The causes of this decline are not fully understood, but alteration and degradation of its freshwater habitat undoubtedly plays a central role.^[8] The negative impacts humans have on rivers and streams come from a wide range of activities such as river regulation, drainage, sewage disposal, dredging, and water pollution, including the introduction of excess nutrients.^[8] Anything that affects the abundance of the fish hosts will also affect the freshwater pearl mussel; for example, the introduction of exotic fish species, such as the rainbow trout, reduces the number of native fish hosts.^[8] Introduced species are also directly affecting the freshwater pearl mussel; the invasion of the zebra mussel (Dreissena polymorpha), which has been spread to new locations by being transported on the bottom of boats or in ballast waters, has impacted freshwater pearl mussel populations in all countries it has invaded.^[8]

The freshwater pearl mussel, which is completely protected in most European countries,^[28] has been the focus of a significant amount of conservation efforts.^[29] Measures have included the transfer of adult mussels to areas where it had gone extinct,^[29][30] the culture of juvenile mussels, and the release of juvenile trout, which have been infected with glochidia, into small rivers, but mainly the freshwater pearl mussel has benefited from habitat restoration projects in some areas.^[30] Due to the essential role salmonid fish play in the life of the freshwater pearl mussel, the conservation of salmon and trout is also central in the survival of this endangered freshwater mussel.^[8]

References

This article incorporates text from the ARKive fact-file "Freshwater pearl mussel" under the Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 3.0 Unported License and the GFDL.

1. ^ Mollusc Specialist Group (1996). Margaritifera margaritifera. 2006. IUCN Red List of Threatened Species. IUCN 2006. www.iucnredlist.org. Retrieved on 13 Jan 2007.
2. ^ Ziuganov, V., San Miguel, E., Neves, R.J., Longa, A., Fernandez, C., Amaro, R., Beletsky, V., Popkovitch, E., Kaliuzhin, S., Johnson, T. (2000). "Life span variation of the freshwater pearlshell: a model species for testing longevity mechanisms in animals.". Ambio ХХIX (2): 102–105. doi:10.1579/0044-7447-29.2.102. http://pinnacle.allenpress.com/doi/pdf/10.1579/0044-7447-29.2.102. 
3. ^ Зюганов В.В. (2004). "Арктические долгоживущие и южные короткоживущие моллюски жемчужницы как модель для изучения основ долголетия.". Успехи геронтол. 14: 21–31. 
4. ^ Helama S., Valovirta I. (2008). "The oldest recorded animal in Finland: ontogenetic age and growth in Margaritifera margaritifera (L. 1758) based on internal shell increments.". Memoranda Soc. Fauna Flora Fennica 84: 20–30. http://www.helsinki.fi/science/raakku/memoranda-2008.pdf. 
5. ^ 2007 IUCN Red List – Search
6. ^ ^{a b c d e f g h i j k l m n o} Skinner, A., Young, M. and Hastie, L. (2003) Ecology of the Freshwater Pearl Mussel. Conserving Natura 2000 Rivers. Ecology Series No. 2. English Nature, Peterborough.
7. ^ ^{a b} Burnie, D. (2001) Animal. Dorling Kindersley, London.
8. ^ ^{a b c d e f g h i j k l m n} Araujo, R. and Ramos, M.A. (2000) Action Plan for Margaritifera margaritifera in Europe. Council of Europe, Strasbourg.
9. ^ ^{a b} Moorkens, E.A. (1999) Conservation Management of the Freshwater Pearl Mussel Margaritifera margaritifera. Part 1: Biology of the Species and its Present Situation in Ireland. Irish Wildlife Manuals, No. 8. Dúchas, The Heritage Service, Dublin.
10. ^ ^{a b c d} Lampert, W. and Sommer, U. (1996) Limnoecology: The Ecology of Lakes and Streams. Oxford University Press, Oxford.
11. ^ "Invertebrate species: molluscs". Joint Nature Conservation Committee. http://www.jncc.gov.uk/ProtectedSites/SACselection/species.asp?FeatureIntCode=S1029. Retrieved 13 January 2007. 
12. ^ "Police crack down on illegal 'ransacking' of mussel sites". Glasgow: The Herald. 26 May 2010. 
13. ^ Juřičková L., Horsák M. & Beran L., 2001: Check-list of the molluscs (Mollusca) of the Czech Republic. Acta Soc. Zool. Bohem., 65: 25-40.
14. ^ Red List of the molluscs (Mollusca) of the Czech Republic http://mollusca.sav.sk/malacology/redlist.htm
15. ^ (Czech) Horsák M., Juřičková L., Beran L., Čejka T. & Dvořák L. (2010). "Komentovaný seznam měkkýšů zjištěných ve volné přírodě České a Slovenské republiky. [Annotated list of mollusc species recorded outdoors in the Czech and Slovak Republics]". Malacologica Bohemoslovaca, Suppl. 1: 1-37. PDF.
16. ^ Dušek J., Hošek M. & Kolářová J. (2007) Hodnotící zpráva o stavu z hlediska ochrany evropsky významných druhů a typů přírodních stanovišť v České republice za rok 2004-2006. - Ochrana přírody, 62(5): appendix 5:I-IV. (in Czech language)
17. ^ "Recherche de sites par espèce: Invertébrés: Moule perlière (Margaritifera margaritifera)". 2007. http://natura2000.environnement.gouv.fr/especes/1029.html. 
18. ^ Glöer P. & Meier-Brook C. (2003) Süsswassermollusken. DJN, pp. 134, page 109, ISBN 3-923376-02-2
19. ^ Protection for wild animals on Schedule 5 of the Wildlife and Countryside Act, 1981. website accessed 7 August 2009.
20. ^ "Cladagh (Swanlinbar) River" Joint Nature Conservation Committee. Retrieved 31 May 2010.
21. ^ Margaritifera margaritifera - Polska Czerwona Księga Zwierząt - Bezkręgowce
22. ^ pl:Polska Czerwona Księga Zwierząt - Bezkręgowce
23. ^ "Threatened and Near Threatened molluscs". 2001. http://www.ymparisto.fi/default.asp?node=8662&lan=en. 
24. ^ "Artsdatabanken". 2010. http://www.artsportalen.artsdatabanken.no/#/Rodliste2010/Vurdering/Margaritifera+margaritifera/24299. 
25. ^ "ArtDatabanken". 2010. http://snotra.artdata.slu.se/artfakta/SpeciesFact.aspx?TaxonId=101268. 
26. ^ [1] cited 16 February 2007
27. ^ Sturm, C.F., Pearce, T.A. and Valdés, A. (2006) The Mollusks: A Guide to Their Study, Collection, and Preservation. Universal-Publishers, Boca Raton, Florida.
28. ^ Young, M.R. (1991) Conserving the freshwater pearl mussel (Margaritifera margaritifera L.) in the British Isles and Continental Europe. Aquatic Conservation: Marine and Freshwater Ecosystems, 1(1): 73 - 77.
29. ^ ^{a b} Scottish Natural Heritage (October 2008).
30. ^ ^{a b} Hastie, L.C. and Young, M.R. (2003) Conservation of the Freshwater Pearl Mussel I. Captive Breeding Techniques. Conserving Natura 2000 Rivers Conservation Techniques Series No. 2. English Nature, Peterborough.

Further reading

• Anonymous 2004. Margaritifera margaritifera. Stage 1 and Stage 2 survey guidelines. Irish Wildlife Manuals, No. 12. National Parks and Wildlife Service, Department of Environment, Heritage and Local Government, Dublin, Ireland. 25 pp.
• Moorkens E. A. 2000. Conservation Management of the Freshwater Pearl Mussel Margaritifera margaritifera. Part 2: Water Quality Requirements. Irish Wildlife Manuals, No. 9., 44 pp.

External links

• Freshwater pearl mussel media at ARKive
• Pesticides Database - Chemical Toxicity Studies
• University of Helsinki - Science of River Pearl Mussel
• UK Biodiversity Action Plan