Zebra and Quagga Mussels: The Distribution and Dispersion of Invasive Species in Bethlehem, PA

An invasive species is an organism that is not native to the ecosystem that it is living in and causes harm, and in Bethlehem Pennsylvania they have aquatic invasive species: zebra and quagga mussels. Zebra and quagga mussels are mussels that have been detrimental to the environment and the ecosystem, especially in the great lakes. In order to look at the distribution and dispersion of these mussels, researchers had to dive down to look at them and plot them. It was found that there was preference between hard and soft substrate, which is different than previous findings. It was also found that the mussels that lived on rocks on the soft substrate were zebra mussels. It was also discovered that the zebra and quagga mussels lived in monospecific clumps and that there may be succession that is occuring between the two species in the quarry.