Why aren quagga mussels flourishing in northwest?
OBP News By Ryan Knutson January 22, 2010 Zebra and Quagga mussels are one of the most damaging invasive water species in the United States, but for some reason, they haven’t yet infested the Pacific Northwest. Researchers at Portland State University are trying to find out why. Ryan Knutson reports. Brian Adair is a graduate student at Portland State University. Last week, researchers captured the sounds of him filling 25 five-gallon jugs with water from the Columbia River. Then he drove it to Lake Mead in Nevada. He’s trying to help solve something of a mystery about Quagga and Zebra mussels Why they aren’t in the Columbia River Basin. Brian Adair: “We are going to grow Quagga mussels in the Columbia River water and see how well they will survive.” Scientists suspect it might have something to do with the water. Brian Adair: “The Columbia River has much lower levels of dissolved calcium than Lake Mead, and in fact it’s low enough that some people predict that Quagga mussels won¹t do
