tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-36910719336243012722024-03-07T19:58:39.697-08:00Minnesota Mussels At MacTest Blog 2.0http://www.blogger.com/profile/14370872197899289623noreply@blogger.comBlogger21125tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3691071933624301272.post-13069717069141856292015-08-20T10:11:00.002-07:002015-08-20T10:11:43.431-07:00Mussels in the news!This summer there have been quite a few news reports about water quality in Minnesota rivers and lakes. Here's a link to a great story about native mussels in the Mississippi River!<br />
<a href="http://www.mprnews.org/story/2015/08/16/mississippi-mussels-making-a-comeback">http://www.mprnews.org/story/2015/08/16/mississippi-mussels-making-a-comeback</a>Kelly MacGregorhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/05587357212302499950noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3691071933624301272.post-2541988316155446592015-08-12T13:47:00.001-07:002015-09-02T13:50:53.079-07:00Find the Mussels: Video<span style="font-family: Georgia, Times New Roman, serif;">Last week, the Snake River gave us quite the treat--clear(ish) water! We took the opportunity to capture a few mussels hanging out underwater. Do you think you can find the mussels buried in the riverbed? Give it a try! </span><br />
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Anonymousnoreply@blogger.com2tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3691071933624301272.post-17871654193326170292015-08-06T08:26:00.000-07:002015-08-06T08:28:31.335-07:00Fun Day! Let's go...grocery shopping??<span style="font-family: Georgia, Times New Roman, serif;">Our summer is almost over!! How did that happen? It went so fast. </span><br />
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<span style="font-family: Georgia, Times New Roman, serif;">We finished our last push of field work this Tuesday, after a very successful trip back to the Snake River to aggregate some pocketbooks and heelsplitters. We greeted our old friends at Freddie's Restaurant, ate the continental breakfast at AmericInn one last time, upset a very tiny very fluffy white dog at the riverside, and found more leeches in two days than we had in the seven weeks preceding. We finally found the elusive heelsplitters in the shallow water and reeds by the white dog, instead of the deeper pools like we had expected. For the entirety of the summer, I don't think we ever successfully predicted where the mussels we wanted would be. Always keeping us on our toes--what mischievous creatures! (And for those of you that have seen the picture of us on the front page of the Macalester website, we do not agree with the claim that mussels are "unglamorous" creatures. Fascinating, beautiful, overlooked, complex, yes, but never unglamorous!)</span><br />
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<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">The very definition of glamour</td></tr>
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<span style="font-family: Georgia, Times New Roman, serif;">We returned to the lab on Wednesday, and because it was Kelly's last day (And the day before Brooke's birthday) we had a "fun day"! Which to us meant, after a delicious and enlightening lunch at Kelly's house where her children revealed all the family secrets, we drove to Target and did some personal grocery shopping. It's what everyone wishes they could do on their fun day at work but are too shy to say, obviously. We finished with a final stop at Nelson's, where we all raised a spoon in Dan's honor before eating approximately a gallon of ice cream each. Good day.</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: Georgia, Times New Roman, serif;">For our final two days, we have quite a lengthy to-do list, including more sediment, data analysis, poster-making, and cleaning out the garage and the beachful of sand in the truck. I'm looking forward to making sense of all the data we've collected and translating it so everyone can understand the important work we've been doing! We are planning on presenting our posters at the Macalester summer research poster session during family weekend, as well as at the St. Croix River Research Rendezvous and possibly the Minnesota State Fair, so check us out at all of these places if you can! We'd love to explain more about what we've accomplished this summer!</span><br />
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<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">The whole crew on the Snake River<br />
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Anonymousnoreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3691071933624301272.post-26796790506330579422015-07-30T13:43:00.000-07:002015-07-30T13:43:22.305-07:00Three Cheers for Public Water Access<span style="font-family: Georgia,"Times New Roman",serif;"><span style="font-size: small;"><b>Do you ever wonder how we actually get to our river sites?</b> It's a legitimate question for sure, and the answer can actually get quite complicated.</span></span><br />
<br /><span style="font-family: Georgia,"Times New Roman",serif;"><span style="font-size: small;">According to the DNR, we may legally access Minnesota's lakes and rivers "if public </span></span><span style="font-family: Georgia,"Times New Roman",serif;"></span><span style="font-size: small;"><span style="font-family: Georgia,"Times New Roman",serif;">land or a public road right-of-way borders the surface of the water or if you </span></span><span style="font-family: Georgia,"Times New Roman",serif;"></span><span style="font-family: Georgia,"Times New Roman",serif;"><span style="font-size: small;">have permission to cross private land to reach the surface of the water" (DNR, http://files.dnr.state.mn.us/rlp/regulations/fishing/fishing2015.pdf#view=fit&pagemode=bookmarks).</span></span><br />
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<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;"><span style="font-size: small;">Bridge overlooking Chippewa River site</span></td></tr>
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<span style="font-family: Georgia,"Times New Roman",serif;"><span style="font-size: small;"> Since nearly 100% of our mussel sites border road bridges that cross over the river, we are usually able to walk down the side of the bridge into the water, which can either be common river-entry points with beaten paths, or the complete opposite, sometimes involving a plethora of poison ivy and thistles to battle through to the water's edge. </span></span><br />
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<span style="font-family: Georgia,"Times New Roman",serif;"></span><span style="font-family: Georgia,"Times New Roman",serif;"><span style="font-size: small;"> We do often knock on the nearby homes of the landowners that live next to the river to ask for permission though, just in case. </span></span><br />
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<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="http://1.bp.blogspot.com/-6hj7pDyX5LU/VbqKBLhBuZI/AAAAAAAAAVI/55cz9GEwx9c/s1600/2015022%2BChippewa%2B-%2B15%2BJuly%2B2015e%2B%2528upstream%2529.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" height="110" src="http://1.bp.blogspot.com/-6hj7pDyX5LU/VbqKBLhBuZI/AAAAAAAAAVI/55cz9GEwx9c/s200/2015022%2BChippewa%2B-%2B15%2BJuly%2B2015e%2B%2528upstream%2529.jpg" width="200" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">Farmland near Chippewa River site</td></tr>
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<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">Entry into Snake River site</td></tr>
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<span style="font-family: Georgia,"Times New Roman",serif;"><span style="font-size: small;">In case you were also curious about mussel regulations, we are allowed to work with these cool living (and sometimes dead) organisms because we are granted authority under the Minnesota DNR in the form of a permit to handle them in these rivers. Even then, there are many rules to follow, such as careful avoidance of invasive species spreading, the care of endangered and threatened mussel species, and more!</span></span><br /><span style="font-family: Georgia,"Times New Roman",serif;"><span style="font-size: small;"></span></span><br />
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<span style="font-family: Georgia,"Times New Roman",serif;"><span style="font-size: small;"> If you're super excited about our research and hoping to collect some of your own mussel shells, here's a heads up about the DNR's rules about that:</span></span><br />
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<li><span style="font-family: Georgia,"Times New Roman",serif;"></span><span style="font-size: small;"><span style="font-family: Georgia,"Times New Roman",serif;">People with a fishing license and children younger than 16 may hand-pick or possess up to </span></span><span style="font-size: small;"><span style="font-family: Georgia,"Times New Roman",serif;">24 whole shells or 48 half shells from dead mussels of species that are not endangered or </span></span><span style="font-size: small;"><span style="font-family: Georgia,"Times New Roman",serif;">threatened</span></span><span style="font-size: small;"><span style="font-family: Georgia,"Times New Roman",serif;"><br /></span></span></li>
<li><span style="font-size: small;"><span style="font-family: Georgia,"Times New Roman",serif;">Shell collection is allowed from May 16 through the last day in February</span></span></li>
<li><span style="font-size: small;"><span style="font-family: Georgia,"Times New Roman",serif;"> </span></span><span style="font-size: small;"><span style="font-family: Georgia,"Times New Roman",serif;">You cannot take mussel shells from the St. Croix River</span></span></li>
<li><span style="font-size: small;"><span style="font-family: Georgia,"Times New Roman",serif;"> </span></span><span style="font-size: small;"><span style="font-family: Georgia,"Times New Roman",serif;">You cannot possess zebra mussels</span></span></li>
<li><span style="font-size: small;"><span style="font-family: Georgia,"Times New Roman",serif;"> </span></span><span style="font-size: small;"><span style="font-family: Georgia,"Times New Roman",serif;">Mussel shells cannot be bought or sold </span></span></li>
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<span style="font-family: Georgia,"Times New Roman",serif;"><span style="font-size: small;"> (DNR, http://files.dnr.state.mn.us/rlp/regulations/fishing/fishing2015.pdf#view=fit&pagemode=bookmarks) </span></span><br />
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<span style="font-size: small;"><b><span style="font-family: Georgia,"Times New Roman",serif;">Happy Regulations!</span></b></span><br />
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<span style="font-family: Georgia,"Times New Roman",serif;"><span style="font-size: small;"><span style="font-size: x-small;"> Photo Credits: photo 3, Macalester promotional material</span></span></span><br />
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<span style="font-family: Georgia,"Times New Roman",serif;"><span style="font-size: small;"> </span></span>Anonymousnoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3691071933624301272.post-6908992337196552562015-07-30T12:55:00.000-07:002015-07-30T12:57:49.598-07:00Minnesotan Horror Story: Terrors of the Dark, Murky Waters<span style="font-family: Georgia, Times New Roman, serif;">Minnesota has some beautiful rivers, and no two rivers are ever exactly the same. There are often flowers blooming along the banks, trees shading the water, and picturesque homes and farms along the meandering waterways. Birds swoop over the water and sing, and dragonflies dart around happily while frogs hop away from your advances. </span><br />
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<span style="font-family: Georgia, Times New Roman, serif;">Don't be fooled! This is more than a serene view. </span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Georgia, Times New Roman, serif;">But when you're in the water, everything changes. </span><br />
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<span style="font-family: Georgia, Times New Roman, serif;">There's a lot of suspended sediment (check out Brooke's post, "You look Mighty FINE with a 'Mudstache'" for more information) in the rivers we've been in, making visibility nonexistent. Once the water gets more than 3-4 feet deep, there isn't even sunlight filtering through the water, no longer making it appear light and warm and safe. It becomes dark. And cold. You feel alone. Anything could happen. </span><br />
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<span style="font-family: Georgia, Times New Roman, serif;">Without vision, your other senses become heightened, but this really only makes things worse. On the river bottoms, you can hear the clinking of gravel being swept downstream. But is it gravel? Is it actually catfish stalking you? Is it a snapping turtle warming up its snapper? Is it a serial killer chuckling in the depths, waiting for you to fall into a hole? On occasion, you find your vision actually does work, and you come face to face with a fish darting past your mask. </span><br />
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<span style="font-family: Georgia, Times New Roman, serif;">Then there's your sense of touch. To search for mussels, there are a couple of techniques--a sweeping motion like a windshield wiper or a more rummaging technique, like you're frantically playing a piano but doing so under the top layer of sediment. Either way, your hands seem to be magnetically attracted to half-buried objects that should not be there, like farm equipment, glass, your fellow project-mates' boots, or weird cloth bundles. </span><br />
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<span style="font-family: Georgia, Times New Roman, serif;">For some reason, it is impossible to not let your mind go to the worst possible place--buried bodies, dismembered animal skeletons, or fecal matter. Around rocks, you undoubtedly picture gigantic, aggressive, ferocious crayfish ready to claim your fingers or monster fish that might swallow you whole. On top of it all, minnows like to satisfy their curiosity by lightly nibbling any exposed skin. It's a strange feeling. </span><br />
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<span style="font-family: Georgia, Times New Roman, serif;">Our timed searches looking for the species richness and abundance at different sites take 20 minutes. While finding mussels is absolutely the goal, survival is also a goal. The best way to get through the time is to try and NOT think about any of the things above: what you're feeling (unless they're mussels), what you're hearing, and definitely not what you can't see. Singing, daydreaming, and repeating "mussels! mussels! mussels!" are all great methods of coping. </span><br />
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<span style="font-family: Georgia, Times New Roman, serif;">Despite all this, hanging out in the rivers is a lot of fun. Every snorkeling search is an adventure, and the unknown can be super exciting. We never know what to expect. All of us are great at exercising our imaginations. In the end, we always make it through to the next site and with all our fingers attached. On to another survey! </span><br />
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Anonymousnoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3691071933624301272.post-45133377899255483462015-07-30T11:51:00.001-07:002015-07-30T11:54:33.020-07:00Wetsuits or Wet Suits?<span style="font-family: Georgia,"Times New Roman",serif;">This week, your favorite freshwater native mussel researchers were at it again in the Chippewa River near Benson, MN. Since we finished the Chippewa aggregations last time, we instead focused on doing timed searches and gathering sediment samples.</span><br />
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<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;"><span style="font-family: Georgia,"Times New Roman",serif;">Maya, Clara, and Mark counting mussels</span></td></tr>
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<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;"><span style="font-family: Georgia,"Times New Roman",serif;">Brooke, Kelly, and Molly (that's me!) measuring water velocity</span></td></tr>
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<span style="font-family: Georgia,"Times New Roman",serif;">The water was often high with a strong current, but the team made do, starting at the most upstream site (which theoretically has the smallest amount of water running through it) and working our way downstream. Some sites reminded us of the good ol' days in the Snake River, when our bags were filled to the brim with mussels....</span><br />
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<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;"><span style="font-family: Georgia,"Times New Roman",serif;">Mussel data collection at the Chippewa River</span></td></tr>
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<span style="font-family: Georgia,"Times New Roman",serif;">And others? Nada, zip, the big zero. These sites were a lot of shifting sand, and the mussels had shifted right on out of there, leaving us with mussel graveyards and hungry leeches.... </span><br />
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<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><span style="font-family: Georgia,"Times New Roman",serif;"><a href="https://4.bp.blogspot.com/-YIFWec0lh54/VbppG567uhI/AAAAAAAAAT0/cacvhDapoMI/s1600/DSCF2154.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" height="223" src="http://4.bp.blogspot.com/-YIFWec0lh54/VbppG567uhI/AAAAAAAAAT0/cacvhDapoMI/s400/DSCF2154.jpg" width="400" /></a></span></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;"><span style="font-family: Georgia,"Times New Roman",serif;">Mussel data collection at the Chippewa River</span></td></tr>
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<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;"><span style="font-family: Georgia,"Times New Roman",serif;">Maya and Clara warm up on the roadside</span></td></tr>
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<span style="font-family: Georgia,"Times New Roman",serif;"> The weirdest thing about this week's trip was the donning of the short wetsuits! We wore legless wetsuits for part of the week, and even shed them completely in favor of our sediment-y swim suits. Which was amazing. We felt so gloriously free in our own skins! The one downside? You get cold. Oh well!</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: Georgia,"Times New Roman",serif;">After 3 days of hard work, we succeeded in completing 9 different sites, so we headed home back to the Twin Cities. In the words of Prof. Kelly, "Yay team!"</span></div>
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Anonymousnoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3691071933624301272.post-73016746904695722302015-07-30T11:29:00.006-07:002015-07-30T11:31:18.443-07:00Eat Like a Local<span style="font-family: Georgia, Times New Roman, serif;">All demanding field work requires satisfying meals to sustain the incredible energy output. As we have all learned, snorkeling and fighting strong currents all day can really give you an appetite, so our field experience has included many meals in many restaurants.</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: Georgia, Times New Roman, serif;">But which ones should we go to? Since our project is funded by the LCCMR (Legislative-Citizen Commission on Minnesota Resources), we have decided that the best way to use Minnesota's money is to put it back in the pockets of local Minnesotan businesses. As a result, we have become quite the connoisseurs of the "Authentic Mexican Restaurants" of Southern MN, and discovered the best places to grab a cheap, tasty bite to eat ($2 Burger Baskets, anyone?!) The locals are always extremely friendly and willing to talk about anything, from farming's impact on water to China's monetary policies to how we look like we might eat our hands off if we don't get our food in the next two minutes. </span><br />
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<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;"><span style="font-family: Georgia, Times New Roman, serif;">Molly, Brooke, and Maya enjoy their Mexican Flag enchiladas at Authentic Mexican Restaurant in New Ulm, MN</span></td></tr>
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<span style="font-family: Georgia, Times New Roman, serif;">It feels really nice to get to know not just the local Minnesotan mussels, but the townspeople and the landowners adjacent to the bridges and rivers we snorkle in. Talking with people can also give us really valuable information about the river systems and land use changes that might affect or give context to our results. Building local relationships is always important in the scientific research world!</span><br />
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<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="http://1.bp.blogspot.com/-epcMjxf10Qk/VbprFenYCzI/AAAAAAAAAGU/RlFVkGuXG0o/s1600/Coffee%2BPot%2BCafe.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><span style="font-family: Georgia, Times New Roman, serif;"><img border="0" height="225" src="http://1.bp.blogspot.com/-epcMjxf10Qk/VbprFenYCzI/AAAAAAAAAGU/RlFVkGuXG0o/s400/Coffee%2BPot%2BCafe.jpg" width="400" /></span></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;"><span style="font-family: Georgia, Times New Roman, serif;">Digesting our food babies after a full lunch at the Coffee Pot Cafe in Alexandria, MN (Now serving Pepsi!)</span></td></tr>
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Anonymousnoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3691071933624301272.post-67366522239763411392015-07-30T11:00:00.006-07:002015-07-30T11:06:17.938-07:00"Fat Mussels"<div style="text-align: center;">
<span style="font-family: Georgia,"Times New Roman",serif;"><span style="font-size: large;"><b>Macalester made a promotional video of what we are up to this summer!</b></span></span></div>
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<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="http://4.bp.blogspot.com/-d9KV3F7RfcA/VbpnTb7ZXMI/AAAAAAAAAGY/b5H6Y9pEsfg/s1600/20150707_mac_121.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" height="266" src="http://4.bp.blogspot.com/-d9KV3F7RfcA/VbpnTb7ZXMI/AAAAAAAAAGY/b5H6Y9pEsfg/s400/20150707_mac_121.jpg" width="400" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">Brooke, Molly, Maya and Clara. Photo courtesy of Macalester Promotional Material</td><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;"></td><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;"><br /></td><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;"><br /></td></tr>
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<span style="font-size: small;"><span style="font-family: Georgia,"Times New Roman",serif;"><span style="font-family: Georgia,"Times New Roman",serif;"><a href="http://www.macalester.edu/news/2015/07/fat-mussels/">Click here to watch "Fat Mussels"</a></span> </span></span></div>
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<br />Anonymousnoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3691071933624301272.post-8607946671602445902015-07-30T10:57:00.002-07:002015-07-30T10:57:34.835-07:00A Field Trip to the Belwin Conservancy<span style="font-family: Georgia, Times New Roman, serif;">Last week, Clara and I had the chance to accompany Dan Hornbach, one of our professors, on a visit to the <a href="http://www.belwin.org/">Belwin Conservancy</a>. The conservancy focuses on outdoor environmental education and is a site for ecology and conservation-based research as well. We went there to install a piezometer, which, put simply, is a device that lets you measure the pressure of groundwater. With multiple piezometers, it is possible to look at the motion of groundwater and see whether it is coming up or going down. Our trip was a little unusual for us because wetsuits weren't part of our uniform; it was a wader day! </span><br />
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<span style="font-family: Georgia, Times New Roman, serif;">Installing a piezometer was pretty straightforward: we used a post driver to pound a pipe into a creek, and, once it was far enough into the ground, slid in the piezometer (which is basically a pipe with a mesh-covered end in the ground so water can get in but sediment stays out). </span><br />
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<span style="font-family: Georgia, Times New Roman, serif; font-size: x-small;">Clara and Dan taking some initial readings from the newly-installed piezometer while rocking the wader look. </span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Georgia, Times New Roman, serif;">Once we got some initial readings from the new piezometer, we took readings from other ones that have already been installed. We also downloaded weather and water temperature data from stations around the conservancy. Dan teaches an aquatic ecology course in the fall, and is planning to use some of these data for the course. Clara and I are actually enrolled in the class, so we were excited to get a sneak peak of what fun things we'll get to learn about!</span><br />
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<span style="font-size: x-small;">Maya taking water depth readings. </span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Georgia, Times New Roman, serif;">Our visit to the Belwin Conservancy was a great opportunity to learn about groundwater and try something new for a day, but we're back to work on mussels, sediment, and the Minnesota River basin! </span>Anonymousnoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3691071933624301272.post-65933126847112113852015-07-30T10:37:00.004-07:002015-07-30T10:39:24.084-07:00You're Looking Mighty FINE with a "mudstache".<table align="center" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="float: right; margin-left: 1em; text-align: right;"><tbody>
<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><img alt="hjulstrom.gif" height="273px;" src="https://lh3.googleusercontent.com/X7M9TzbI27XZb6_T5xvsdxxDDksypthbHqt9dcfnXE8EM89F1cIj2PxtP5oMfhKzQvzGJh8VxWlVoHZiHf_mXM8yHJmEONzTsjFFGrJd2yDUFqgXs26De14vOzawcO1mPoXUBwQ" style="border: medium none; margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto; transform: rotate(0rad);" width="331px;" /></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;"><span style="font-size: xx-small;"><span style="font-family: Georgia,"Times New Roman",serif;"><a href="http://www.columbia.edu/%7Evjd1/streams_basic.htm" style="text-decoration: none;"><span style="background-color: transparent; color: #1155cc; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: underline; vertical-align: baseline;"><span style="color: black;">Hjustrom Diagram: </span>http://www.columbia.edu/~vjd1/streams_basic.htm</span></a></span></span></td></tr>
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<span style="font-family: Georgia,"Times New Roman",serif;"><span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-size: 14.6667px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline;">Hi, Brooke here!</span></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Georgia,"Times New Roman",serif;"><span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-size: 14.6667px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline;">While we are snorkeling in the rivers we often grow a “mudstache” throughout the search. These fashionable features are due to the sediment flowing through the river. The interaction between the velocity of water and the sediment flowing in it is an important one! The energy (determined by the velocity) of the river, determines how much sediment is entrained and suspended - with more sediment suspended, the greater the “mudstaches” we get.</span></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Georgia,"Times New Roman",serif;"><span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-size: 14.6667px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline;">There are two important diagrams that show the relationship between sediment size and energy of the river system.</span></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Georgia,"Times New Roman",serif;"><span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-size: 14.6667px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline;">One is The Hjulström Diagram below shows the relationship of sediment diameter versus water velocity - showing what speed a particle is in transport, being eroded and deposited. </span></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Georgia,"Times New Roman",serif;"><span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-size: 14.6667px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline;">Another is Shield's diagram. Put simply, this diagram shows at what shear stress is particle is likely to be entrained (or move along the bed or in suspension).</span></span></div>
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<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><img alt="03_shields_diagram.gif" height="212" src="https://lh5.googleusercontent.com/7LAjrk32v3INZOKUl-Oo9zcZv5rVjRjoLYCwXQ5_jV4OmV0z0rMs_mW0pqdRUUCp4sJ3EHi2tDrLvlaFPFy-02sgR1HxNwl6vOMTbj7vYE3XY11MmQFqJW_HvTBk_PWVuM4PSjc" style="border: medium none; margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto; transform: rotate(0rad);" width="400" /></td></tr>
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<span style="font-size: xx-small;"><span style="font-family: Georgia,"Times New Roman",serif;"><span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline;">Sheilds Diagram </span><a href="http://www4.uwsp.edu/geo/faculty/lemke/geomorphology/lectures/03_stream_sediment.html" style="text-decoration: none;"><span style="background-color: transparent; color: #1155cc; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: underline; vertical-align: baseline;">http://www4.uwsp.edu/geo/faculty/lemke/geomorphology/lectures/03_stream_sediment.html</span></a></span></span></div>
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<span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-size: 14.6667px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline;"></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Georgia,"Times New Roman",serif;"><span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-size: 14.6667px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline;">There are three categories of sediment transport; the wash load, suspended load and bedload.</span></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Georgia,"Times New Roman",serif;"><span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-size: 14.6667px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline;">The </span><span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-size: 14.6667px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: bold; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline;">wash load</span><span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-size: 14.6667px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline;"> of a river is the sediment/debris in the river that is carried by the water near the surface. Usually it will not ever deposit. </span></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Georgia,"Times New Roman",serif;"><span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-size: 14.6667px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline;">The </span><span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-size: 14.6667px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: bold; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline;">suspended load</span><span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-size: 14.6667px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline;"> is the sediment that settles very slow, so slow that it also may never touch the bed of the river. It is upheld by turbulence - and is what causes us to get our great five o’clock shadows.</span></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Georgia,"Times New Roman",serif;"><span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-size: 14.6667px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline;">The </span><span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-size: 14.6667px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: bold; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline;">bedload</span><span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-size: 14.6667px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline;"> of a river is the sediment that is transported along the bed. This transport occurs through the saltation, rolling and sliding of the sediment. Saltation is jumping along of a particle along the bed - rolling and sliding are pretty intuitive.</span></span></div>
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<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><img alt="suspended_load_water.jpg" height="209px;" src="https://lh5.googleusercontent.com/uXQ4-ahWAqtnUIU9xSzvrLFwSnV_Z7OMvPAURBG2e5yvh9jYganbQ2ldXrJsvEINPEj0sEOSWx8zSR4o5LuKAmeXzqPcCOxdobWVYlLPv11kOrh-7rWRyXTHwFRXLYKxT4YlDnQ" style="border: medium none; margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto; transform: rotate(0rad);" width="438px;" /></td></tr>
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<span style="font-size: xx-small;"><span style="font-family: Georgia,"Times New Roman",serif;"><span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline;">Saltation image </span><a href="http://www.asu.edu/courses/gph111/Fluvial/LarsonFluvialOutline.html" style="text-decoration: none;"><span style="background-color: transparent; color: #1155cc; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: underline; vertical-align: baseline;">http://www.asu.edu/courses/gph111/Fluvial/LarsonFluvialOutline.html</span></a></span></span></div>
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<span style="font-size: xx-small;"><span style="background-color: transparent; clear: left; color: black; float: left; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-right: 1em; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline;"></span><span style="font-family: Georgia,"Times New Roman",serif;"></span></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Georgia,"Times New Roman",serif;"><span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-size: 14.6667px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline;">Unfortunately we do not have any images of us with our fancy-staches, but instead is here a picture of Maya as a burrito! We call this a burrito because we wrap ourselves up in a tarp to keep the car somewhat dry when driving from site to site!</span></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Georgia,"Times New Roman",serif;"><br /></span>Anonymousnoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3691071933624301272.post-17784595836871014072015-07-20T13:38:00.001-07:002015-07-20T13:40:29.354-07:00I'm Pretty "Sueur" There Are No Mussels Here <span style="font-family: Georgia, 'Times New Roman', serif;">Since Molly and Brooke conquered the Chippewa early last week, it was my and Maya's turn to join Mark and head to the Le Sueur river to aggregate more mussels for our glycogen analysis. We got up bright and early Friday morning and drove out into the cornfields.</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: Georgia, Times New Roman, serif;">The river that greeted us was noticeably different than the rivers we've seen so far. The current was strong, and there were deep holes you wouldn't want to step into with a weight belt on. There were downed trees everywhere; at one site, they had created a dam that was ~30 meters wide and ~35 meters long! </span><br />
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<span style="font-family: Georgia, Times New Roman, serif;">In addition, there was so much suspended sediment that there was no chance of spotting anything farther than three inches away from your face! This meant we were forced to feel around for mussels, but unfortunately we caught many more mussel-sized rocks. We were only able to aggregate enough heelsplitters and pocketbooks at one site instead of three.</span><br />
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<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">One of our data sheets. As you can see, we did not find any live mussels at this site (although we did see a softshell turtle!!)</td></tr>
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<span style="font-family: Georgia, Times New Roman, serif;">15 years ago, the Minnesota DNR found plenty of mussels at these sites. Where, then, have they gone, and why? Maya and I are really interested in thinking about this question and looking at whether land use changes could be a factor here. </span><br />
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<span style="font-family: Georgia, Times New Roman, serif;">Because of the difficulty in finding enough mussels, and heelsplitters in particular, our team has decided to change one of our target species from the White heelsplitter (<i>Lasmigona complanata</i>) to the more common Three-ridge (<i>Amblema plicata</i>). Hopefully this will make it easier to complete our research!</span><br />
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<br />Anonymousnoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3691071933624301272.post-63454715436011154752015-07-20T12:59:00.000-07:002015-07-20T13:24:58.077-07:00Mussels and Fishies: An Underwater Romance<div dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.38; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt;">
<span style="font-family: Georgia,"Times New Roman",serif;"><span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-size: 14.666666666666666px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">When we’re looking for live mussels in the riverbeds, we often find the weathered shells of deceased mussels. Opening the valves, a slurry of sediment and debris obscures your vision for a moment. Sometimes, though, we discover that these calcium carbonate skeletons have been claimed--by fish! It turns out that these shells make the perfect nesting site for fish (like darters) to lay their eggs. </span></span></div>
<span style="font-family: Georgia,"Times New Roman",serif;"><b id="docs-internal-guid-48c81f7e-92b5-2868-6c7a-ebc3e4bda1fd" style="font-weight: normal;"><br /></b></span>
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<span style="font-family: Georgia,"Times New Roman",serif;"><span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-size: 14.666666666666666px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">Last week, we visited the Sleepy Eye Creek, and were surprised to find lots and lots of shells nestled among the cobbles and boulders. Many more than usual were filled with little gelatinous-looking beads. After taking some pictures, we were sure to return the shells to the water as to not dry them out too much. </span></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Georgia,"Times New Roman",serif;"><a href="http://1.bp.blogspot.com/-HDkKaq8g8ik/VaadkouD3SI/AAAAAAAAAOk/BVuX2jrDDpo/s1600/IMG_0220.JPG" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="240" src="http://1.bp.blogspot.com/-HDkKaq8g8ik/VaadkouD3SI/AAAAAAAAAOk/BVuX2jrDDpo/s320/IMG_0220.JPG" width="320" /></a></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Georgia,"Times New Roman",serif;"><span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-size: 14.666666666666666px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">A white heelsplitter shell from the Sleepy Eye Creek with fish eggs. </span></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Georgia,"Times New Roman",serif;"><span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-size: 14.666666666666666px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"><br /></span></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Georgia,"Times New Roman",serif;"><span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-size: 14.666666666666666px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">While the fish clearly utilize the mussel shells to reproduce, the relationship actually goes both ways. Mussels (of the living variety) often need fish to reproduce. Male mussels release sperm into the open water, and female mussels will produce eggs and hold them in their gills until sperm reaches them. Since mussels don't exactly have the means to move about far distances, some mussels use a special part of their mantle to entice fish to come try and take a nibble. Others release little packets, resembling food to the fish. Either way, instead of a meal, the fish are surprised with a mouthful of glochidia larvae, which attach to the fish's gills and hang out until they become juveniles. When they're ready, the juvenile mussels detach, having caught a ride to a new home! </span></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Georgia,"Times New Roman",serif;">Life cycle of mussels. </span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Georgia,"Times New Roman",serif;">http://molluskconservation.org/MUSSELS/Reproduction.html</span></div>
Anonymousnoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3691071933624301272.post-39639666179930336282015-07-17T13:36:00.000-07:002015-07-17T13:44:26.862-07:00What the Glycogen: Chippewa Edition<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
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<span style="font-family: Georgia, Times New Roman, serif;">As we've mentioned, it's been a wet summer. However, whether the weather wants to cooperate or not, we need to prepare each site by grouping and aggregating 10-15 specimens of our target mussel species (the White Heelsplitter and the Plain Pocketbook) for glycogen analysis. </span><br />
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<span style="font-family: Georgia, Times New Roman, serif;">The glycogen analysis is basically a "how happy/stressed is this mussel?" analysis. While humans store fat in their bodies, mussels store glycogen. Thus, the more glycogen present, the happier and less stressed the mussel is. </span><br />
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<span style="font-family: Georgia, 'Times New Roman', serif;">The analysis must be done to the mussels in the same time period to get comparable data, so whenever we visit a site, we place our mussel collections in specific locations marked by GPS coordinates, where we will hopefully find them once again. </span><br />
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<b><span style="color: #783f04;">Chippewa River Sites</span></b></h3>
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<span style="font-family: Georgia, 'Times New Roman', serif;">This week, Mark, Brooke and I visited the Chippewa River near Benson, MN. Going in, we had little hope of finding enough mussels for aggregation. Water levels were high, and we often wore two weight belts, and even used small boulders as personal anchors to stay underwater and fight the current! </span><span style="font-family: Georgia, 'Times New Roman', serif;">Also, because of the murky water, we had to rely on our sense of touch rather than sight. </span></div>
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<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;"><span style="font-family: Georgia, Times New Roman, serif;">Chippewa River Site</span></td></tr>
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<span style="font-family: Georgia, 'Times New Roman', serif;">But all our hard work paid off: we were able to find and aggregate enough mussels of both species for 3 full sites! We even found a nice amount of the sneaky White Heelsplitters, which were quite elusive in our Snake and Cottonwood sites.</span><br />
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<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="http://3.bp.blogspot.com/-OgWu5J8Z2rA/Valkzo9PzqI/AAAAAAAAATU/pRn4LPzUmrc/s1600/DSCN1716.JPG" imageanchor="1" style="clear: right; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><span style="font-family: Georgia, Times New Roman, serif;"><img border="0" height="300" src="http://3.bp.blogspot.com/-OgWu5J8Z2rA/Valkzo9PzqI/AAAAAAAAATU/pRn4LPzUmrc/s400/DSCN1716.JPG" width="400" /></span></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;"><span style="font-family: Georgia, Times New Roman, serif;">Mussels buried semi-deep in Snake River substrate</span></td></tr>
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<span style="font-family: Georgia, Times New Roman, serif;">Many species in the Chippewa, especially the Three Ridge and the Plain Pocketbook, were of monstrous size and heavily buried. I don't blame them: either burrow into the substrate or get carried away by the fast current. I think I'll try that next time!</span></div>
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Jess Kozarek, picture 3Anonymousnoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3691071933624301272.post-73631663041654824672015-07-17T09:44:00.000-07:002015-07-30T10:19:42.220-07:00River Watch!<div dir="ltr" id="docs-internal-guid-379a6edb-9cc7-130f-a442-d4147a8a8fb8" style="line-height: 1.38; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt;">
<span style="font-family: Georgia,"Times New Roman",serif;"><span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-size: 14.666666666666666px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline;">Molly here!</span></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Georgia,"Times New Roman",serif;"><span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-size: 14.666666666666666px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline;">We’ve definitely begun to settle into a routine these days, but every site is different. We've had the chance to see some pretty amazing (and sometimes downright creepy) wildlife above and below the water. This list includes but is not limited to:</span></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Georgia,"Times New Roman",serif;"><span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-size: 14.666666666666666px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline;">-crayfish</span></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Georgia,"Times New Roman",serif;"><span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-size: 14.666666666666666px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline;">-fish</span></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Georgia,"Times New Roman",serif;"><span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-size: 14.666666666666666px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline;">-poison ivy</span></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Georgia,"Times New Roman",serif;"><span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-size: 14.666666666666666px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline;">-muskrat</span></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Georgia,"Times New Roman",serif;"><span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-size: 14.666666666666666px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline;">-bald eagles</span></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Georgia,"Times New Roman",serif;"><span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-size: 14.666666666666666px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline;">-huge, water-hopping spiders (like I said, creepy)</span></span></div>
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<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="http://3.bp.blogspot.com/-mTWCQ0pyyLE/VakuRH-L4xI/AAAAAAAAASg/VPvOLnoe_WI/s1600/DSCF0429.JPG" imageanchor="1" style="clear: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" height="150" src="http://3.bp.blogspot.com/-mTWCQ0pyyLE/VakuRH-L4xI/AAAAAAAAASg/VPvOLnoe_WI/s200/DSCF0429.JPG" width="200" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">Dragonfly on Snake River</td></tr>
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<span style="font-family: Georgia,"Times New Roman",serif;"><span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-size: 14.666666666666666px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline;"><span style="color: #741b47;"><b>Story time:</b></span> As we were working in the Snake, Brooke set her equipment down on a branch sticking out of the water mid-channel. It just so happens that the largest spiders I’ve ever seen liked Brooke’s equipment a lot. When we grabbed the weight belt flinging the spiders away, it was a moment filled with pure adrenaline and yelling, and then shock as we watched the spiders jump off the branch and hop along the water to the shore. I’m pretty sure our mouths were wide open. </span></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Georgia,"Times New Roman",serif;"><span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-size: 14.666666666666666px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline;">You can imagine, though, what years of human habitation near rivers can do. There are also non-living things in rivers, such as:</span></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Georgia,"Times New Roman",serif;"><span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-size: 14.666666666666666px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline;">-broken bottles</span></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Georgia,"Times New Roman",serif;"><span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-size: 14.666666666666666px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline;">-fishing lines</span></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Georgia,"Times New Roman",serif;"><span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-size: 14.666666666666666px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline;">-farming equipment</span></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Georgia,"Times New Roman",serif;"><span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-size: 14.666666666666666px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline;">-bridge materials </span></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Georgia,"Times New Roman",serif;"><span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-size: 14.666666666666666px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline;">-bicycles</span></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Georgia,"Times New Roman",serif;"><span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-size: 14.666666666666666px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline;">Non-natural things can be a little dangerous. We typically wear gloves, and try to slowly move our hands along the river bed as we search for mussels so as not to hurt ourselves. </span></span><br />
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<span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: Arial; font-size: 14.666666666666666px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline;"><span style="font-family: Georgia,"Times New Roman",serif;">All in all, though, what can I say? We are constantly entertained by the job, and I'm glad to be a part of this unique experience!</span></span><br />
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<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="http://1.bp.blogspot.com/-bwjaWcZN-tc/VakwlrGhLnI/AAAAAAAAASs/kaodR3NQPgY/s1600/2015008%2BSnake%2BRiver%2B22%2BJune%2B2015%2Bupstream.JPG" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" height="223" src="http://1.bp.blogspot.com/-bwjaWcZN-tc/VakwlrGhLnI/AAAAAAAAASs/kaodR3NQPgY/s400/2015008%2BSnake%2BRiver%2B22%2BJune%2B2015%2Bupstream.JPG" width="400" /></a></td></tr>
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<tr><td style="text-align: center;"></td><td style="text-align: center;"></td><td style="text-align: center;"></td><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="http://1.bp.blogspot.com/-L7kZrqNuiP4/VakoD0JotsI/AAAAAAAAAFk/bk40UziGFyE/s1600/GroupSed%2528macPhoto%2529.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" height="212" src="http://1.bp.blogspot.com/-L7kZrqNuiP4/VakoD0JotsI/AAAAAAAAAFk/bk40UziGFyE/s320/GroupSed%2528macPhoto%2529.jpg" width="320" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;"><br /></td><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;"><br /></td><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;"><br /></td><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;"><span style="font-size: xx-small;">Taking Sediment samples in the Snake River at high
flow. Photo courtesy of Macalester Promotional Material.</span></td></tr>
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<div dir="ltr" id="docs-internal-guid-fbf8fdce-9cc3-ab04-3f8e-3d122682b63c" style="line-height: 1.656; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt;">
<span style="font-family: Georgia,"Times New Roman",serif;"><span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-size: 14.6667px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline;">This past week we got the opportunity to revisit a previous field site - except during a much higher flow! The first time we went out the river was flowing around 250 cubic feet per second (cfs, or the volume of water moving through the channel), when we visited this week, it was about 550cfs - this made working in the field quite different. There was a noticeable change in the appearance of the river bed - less fine grained sediment and fewer live mussels!</span></span></div>
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<table align="center" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="float: left; margin-right: 1em; text-align: left;"><tbody>
<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><span style="font-family: Georgia,"Times New Roman",serif;"><a href="http://1.bp.blogspot.com/-Kj1t8ZFyitg/VakoD6KNqxI/AAAAAAAAAFs/lypoj2maprk/s1600/SedimMeasure.JPG" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" height="240" src="http://1.bp.blogspot.com/-Kj1t8ZFyitg/VakoD6KNqxI/AAAAAAAAAFs/lypoj2maprk/s320/SedimMeasure.JPG" width="320" /></a></span></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;"><span style="font-family: Georgia,"Times New Roman",serif;"><span style="font-size: xx-small;">Taking sediment samples during normal flow! Photo courtesy of Jess Kozarek.</span></span></td></tr>
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<div dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.656; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt;">
<span style="font-family: Georgia,"Times New Roman",serif;"><span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-size: 14.6667px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline;">When we collect sediment samples, someone sinks to the bottom and scoops up sediment with a cup - this past time the water movement was much faster - pushing the scooper downstream very quickly. I personally like to use Molly’s legs as a anchor!</span></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Georgia,"Times New Roman",serif;"><span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-size: 14.6667px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline;">As water flux increases, the velocity increases. This higher energy allows for more sediment to move along the bed, or become suspended in the water. This fact was very present at this site in the Snake River. When snorkeling, the visibility had decreased greatly from the last time we were at the site - making it harder to find the mussels.</span></span></div>
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<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><span style="font-family: Georgia,"Times New Roman",serif;"><a href="http://2.bp.blogspot.com/-n2BoyBmXTdU/VakoD7G8lpI/AAAAAAAAAFo/DLIns3kWy_Q/s1600/Cookies.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" height="213" src="http://2.bp.blogspot.com/-n2BoyBmXTdU/VakoD7G8lpI/AAAAAAAAAFo/DLIns3kWy_Q/s320/Cookies.jpg" width="320" /></a></span></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;"><span style="font-family: Georgia,"Times New Roman",serif;"><span style="font-size: xx-small;">Yay, cookies! Photo courtesy of Macalester Promotional material.</span></span></td></tr>
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<span style="font-family: Georgia,"Times New Roman",serif;"><span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-size: 14.6667px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline;">The mussels we did find were few, and often just shells. Where did all the mussels go that we had found there less than a week before? Had the burrowed deeper? Or traveled with the current downstream? Or could we just not see them?</span></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Georgia,"Times New Roman",serif;"><span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-size: 14.6667px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline;">The hard work was all worth it for some Dan’s homemade cookies!</span></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Georgia,"Times New Roman",serif;"></span><span style="font-family: Georgia,"Times New Roman",serif;"><span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-size: 14.6667px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline;"> </span></span><br />
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<span style="font-family: Georgia,"Times New Roman",serif;"><span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-size: 14.6667px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline;">cfs data found at:</span><a href="http://waterdata.usgs.gov/nwis/uv?cb_00065=on&cb_00060=on&format=gif_default&site_no=05338500&period=&begin_date=2015-07-01&end_date=2015-07-08" style="text-decoration: none;"><span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-size: 14.6667px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline;"> </span><span style="background-color: transparent; color: #1155cc; font-size: 14.6667px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: underline; vertical-align: baseline;">http://waterdata.usgs.gov/nwis/uv?cb_00065=on&cb_00060=on&format=gif_default&site_no=05338500&period=&begin_date=2015-07-01&end_date=2015-07-08</span></a></span>Anonymousnoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3691071933624301272.post-68296499217783552402015-07-15T10:13:00.000-07:002015-07-15T10:15:15.220-07:00Pocketbook, Pigtoe, or Spike?<div dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.38; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt;">
<span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: Georgia, Times New Roman, serif; font-size: 14.666666666666666px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">For the first week or so (and a little bit even now), looking at the big pile of our collected mussels on the shore was completely overwhelming. How on earth was I supposed to know whether the mussel I was holding was a Round or a Wabash pigtoe? Which one was </span><span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: Georgia, Times New Roman, serif; font-size: 14.6666666666667px; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"><i>A. Lig</i></span><span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: Georgia, Times New Roman, serif; font-size: 14.666666666666666px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">? And are pocketbooks and </span><span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: Georgia, Times New Roman, serif; font-size: 14.6666666666667px; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"><i>L. card </i>the same thing</span><span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: Georgia, Times New Roman, serif; font-size: 14.666666666666666px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">? Every scientific name sounded the same, and even worse, all the mussels looked the same. They looked like roundish, flatish rocks. </span></div>
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<span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: Georgia, Times New Roman, serif; font-size: 14.666666666666666px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">But! There is hope! Only a couple of weeks in and we can all identify way more species than I thought possible. Here is a quick list of the most common species we are encountering in our fieldwork:</span></div>
<span style="font-family: Georgia, Times New Roman, serif;"><b id="docs-internal-guid-3e70e357-8d29-0f09-5c5b-a4c79ee0efd4" style="font-weight: normal;"><br /></b>
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<span style="font-family: Georgia, Times New Roman, serif;"><span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-size: 14.666666666666666px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">Spike </span><span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-size: 14.6666666666667px; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"><i>(Elliptio dilatata)</i></span><span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-size: 14.666666666666666px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">: This mussel is easy to identify because of its elongated shape, much more exaggerated than most mussels. </span></span><br />
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<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="http://3.bp.blogspot.com/-4usvFLEjzEI/VaaQkHanciI/AAAAAAAAAFQ/RDklq5MfRIc/s1600/elliptio_dilatata.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><span style="font-family: Georgia, Times New Roman, serif;"><img border="0" height="165" src="http://3.bp.blogspot.com/-4usvFLEjzEI/VaaQkHanciI/AAAAAAAAAFQ/RDklq5MfRIc/s320/elliptio_dilatata.jpg" width="320" /></span></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;"><i><span style="font-family: Georgia, Times New Roman, serif;">Elliptio dilatata</span></i></td></tr>
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<span style="font-family: Georgia, Times New Roman, serif;"><span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-size: 14.6666666666667px; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"><i>Ligumia recta</i></span><span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-size: 14.666666666666666px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">: Looks extremely similar to </span><span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-size: 14.6666666666667px; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"><i>E. dil</i></span><span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-size: 14.666666666666666px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">, except that the raised line on each shell starting from the hinge of the mussel, called the posterior ridge, ends on the side of the shell instead of the bottom (in other words, it ends medially instead of ventrally).</span></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Georgia, Times New Roman, serif;"><span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-size: 14.666666666666666px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">Three-ridge </span><span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-size: 14.6666666666667px; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"><i>(Amblema plicata)</i></span><span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-size: 14.666666666666666px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">: By far the easiest mussel to identify-- just look for those ridges! Sometimes there are more than three, however.</span></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Georgia, Times New Roman, serif;"><span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-size: 14.666666666666666px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">Wabash pigtoe </span><span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-size: 14.6666666666667px; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"><i>(Fusconaia flava)</i></span><span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-size: 14.666666666666666px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">: My favorite, it has a wonky shape but is overall much more round than mussels that have a slightly elongated shape. It also has a bright orange foot!</span></span><br />
<span style="font-family: Georgia, Times New Roman, serif;"><span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-size: 14.666666666666666px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"><br /></span></span>
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<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="http://1.bp.blogspot.com/-lEQuxu95b5I/VaaQ4kg9O3I/AAAAAAAAAFY/2SA5tgz7Evk/s1600/wabash%2Bpigtoe.jpeg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><span style="font-family: Georgia, Times New Roman, serif;"><img border="0" height="221" src="http://1.bp.blogspot.com/-lEQuxu95b5I/VaaQ4kg9O3I/AAAAAAAAAFY/2SA5tgz7Evk/s320/wabash%2Bpigtoe.jpeg" width="320" /></span></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;"><i><span style="font-family: Georgia, Times New Roman, serif;">Fusconaia flava</span></i></td></tr>
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<span style="font-family: Georgia, Times New Roman, serif;"><span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-size: 14.666666666666666px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">Pocketbook </span><span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-size: 14.6666666666667px; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"><i>(Lampsilis cardium)</i></span><span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-size: 14.666666666666666px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">: Very fat. Very, very fat. So fat. Definitely the most curious- they are the first to open their shells to explore their new surroundings when we gather on the riverbank to sort our catch.</span></span><br />
<span style="font-family: Georgia, Times New Roman, serif;"><span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-size: 14.666666666666666px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"><br /></span></span>
<table align="center" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto; text-align: center;"><tbody>
<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="http://2.bp.blogspot.com/-RcSB3fSFu24/VaaR4FxxG_I/AAAAAAAAAFo/YI75KPrwzec/s1600/lcardium_threeridge.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><span style="font-family: Georgia, Times New Roman, serif;"><img border="0" height="213" src="http://2.bp.blogspot.com/-RcSB3fSFu24/VaaR4FxxG_I/AAAAAAAAAFo/YI75KPrwzec/s320/lcardium_threeridge.jpg" width="320" /></span></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;"><span style="font-family: Georgia, Times New Roman, serif;"><i>Lampsilis cardium </i>(center)<i> </i>and <i>Amblema plicata </i>(right)</span></td></tr>
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<span style="font-family: Georgia, Times New Roman, serif;"><span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-size: 14.666666666666666px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">Pink heelsplitter </span><span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-size: 14.6666666666667px; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"><i>(Potamilus alatus)</i></span><span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-size: 14.666666666666666px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">: Named the heelsplitter because of its shark fin-like appendage on its top, which you would definitely not want to step on! They’re also usually much larger than other mussels. </span></span><br />
<span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: Georgia, Times New Roman, serif; font-size: 14.666666666666666px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"><br /></span>
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<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="http://3.bp.blogspot.com/-9_lr_bNZQxQ/VaaRfwry3xI/AAAAAAAAAFg/Fdgg5sMZGEs/s1600/pink%2Bheelsplitter.jpeg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><span style="font-family: Georgia, Times New Roman, serif;"><img border="0" src="http://3.bp.blogspot.com/-9_lr_bNZQxQ/VaaRfwry3xI/AAAAAAAAAFg/Fdgg5sMZGEs/s1600/pink%2Bheelsplitter.jpeg" /></span></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;"><i><span style="font-family: Georgia, Times New Roman, serif;">Potamilus alatus</span></i></td></tr>
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<span style="font-family: Georgia, Times New Roman, serif;"><span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-size: 14.666666666666666px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">White heelsplitter </span><span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-size: 14.6666666666667px; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"><i>(Lasmigona complanata)</i></span><span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-size: 14.666666666666666px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">: Looks exactly like the pink version, except that its sides are much flatter and not inflated. It can be hard to distinguish between the two. Both heelsplitters can be a bit of a jokester and squirt you with water when you hold them up in the air.</span></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Georgia, Times New Roman, serif;"><span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-size: 14.666666666666666px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">Mucket </span><span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-size: 14.6666666666667px; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"><i>(Actinonaias ligamentina)</i></span><span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-size: 14.666666666666666px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">: If it has no real distinguishing characteristics and just kinda looks like a mussel, I would bet you’re holding a good old mucket. </span></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Georgia, Times New Roman, serif;"><span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-size: 14.6666666666667px; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"><i>Leptodea fragilis</i></span><span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-size: 14.666666666666666px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">: Just like the mucket, but really light. Extremely light. Suspiciously light.</span></span></div>
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<span style="font-size: 14.6666669845581px; white-space: pre-wrap;"><span style="font-family: Georgia, Times New Roman, serif;">http://www.museum.state.il.us/ismdepts/zoology/mussels/gallery.html?RollID=mussel_01&FrameID=potamilus_alatus677337a</span></span><br />
<span style="font-size: 14.6666669845581px; white-space: pre-wrap;"><span style="font-family: Georgia, Times New Roman, serif;">http://wwx.inhs.illinois.edu/collections/mollusk/publications/guide/index/46</span></span><br />
<span style="font-size: 14.6666669845581px; white-space: pre-wrap;"><span style="font-family: Georgia, Times New Roman, serif;">http://www.snipview.com/q/Elliptio</span></span><br />
<span style="font-size: 14.6666669845581px; white-space: pre-wrap;"><span style="font-family: Georgia, Times New Roman, serif;">Macalester promotional material</span></span><br />
<br />Anonymousnoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3691071933624301272.post-69995567607649920052015-07-14T09:03:00.000-07:002015-07-14T09:03:34.147-07:00How to Put on Your Wetsuit: Video<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
<br /><iframe width="320" height="266" class="YOUTUBE-iframe-video" data-thumbnail-src="https://i.ytimg.com/vi/4wTbCfM5kpg/0.jpg" src="https://www.youtube.com/embed/4wTbCfM5kpg?feature=player_embedded" frameborder="0" allowfullscreen></iframe></div>
<br />Anonymousnoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3691071933624301272.post-40621591514006136342015-07-08T10:55:00.003-07:002015-09-02T13:43:03.399-07:00About The Project<div dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.38; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt;">
<span style="background-color: transparent; font-size: 14.6666666666667px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"><span style="font-family: Georgia, Times New Roman, serif;">Conserving Minnesota's Native Freshwater Mussels</span></span></div>
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<span style="background-color: transparent; font-size: 14.6666666666667px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"><span style="font-family: Georgia, Times New Roman, serif;"><br /></span></span></div>
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<span style="background-color: transparent; font-size: 14.6666666666667px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"><span style="font-family: Georgia, Times New Roman, serif;">Our project is funded through the LCCMR (Legislative-Citizen Commission on Minnesota Resources) Environment and Natural Resources Trust Fund (ENRTF). We are looking at the complex interactions between freshwater mussels and aspects of their habitat, such as sediment and water velocity. The summer of 2015 will be focused on collecting data in the field, primarily in the Minnesota River Basin and the St. Croix River. We are re-visiting sites that the Minnesota DNR visited in 1999 in order to look at the differences in mussel species diversity and distribution in the last 16 years. In the next two years, our project leaders will carry out laboratory experiments in the Outdoor StreamLab and flumes at St. Anthony Falls Laboratory in order to study mussel and sediment interaction in a more controlled environment. </span></span></div>
<span style="font-family: Georgia, Times New Roman, serif;"><span id="docs-internal-guid-27a1dc2d-6ece-6756-654d-537df2299420"><br /><span style="font-size: 14.6666666666667px; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">In short, we’re snorkeling in Minnesota’s rivers and looking for mussels, and we’re excited to share our experience</span></span><span style="font-size: 14.6666666666667px; line-height: 1.38; white-space: pre-wrap;">s and findings with you! Check back regularly for updates and exclusive photos. Thanks! </span></span><br />
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</span>Anonymousnoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3691071933624301272.post-75404689205899899332015-07-08T10:43:00.002-07:002015-07-08T11:52:21.842-07:00Cobbles, Boulders and Sand, Oh My!<div dir="ltr" id="docs-internal-guid-bd49ddcd-6eb7-515f-f595-484006d61a0a" style="line-height: 1.38; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt;">
<span style="font-family: Georgia,"Times New Roman",serif;"><span style="background-color: transparent; font-size: 14.6667px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline;">Week 2. We’ve passed the “is-my-snorkel-on-right” and “We-found-some-mussels-oh-wait-they’re-rocks” stage of the project, and now we’re on to real study sites data collection! A large part of this involves sediment, or as Dan likes to call it “dirt” (technically inaccurate though). Check out a sediment sample below!</span></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Georgia,"Times New Roman",serif; margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><br /><br /><img alt="DSCF1651.JPG" height="222" src="https://lh5.googleusercontent.com/0RVdD8embENX_G2GvXfBYX956Ci8hnLNhmAqL50FlsKMk2kfRV7Ji0GZxi6WbXiQeP_4WB9ePCUwRGB2o8Tg2ljWRznpny06M7fWjl_T9WxUxEK4RdXMuAFIS8X9MIPxHStCYuc" style="border: medium none; transform: rotate(0rad);" width="400" /></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Georgia,"Times New Roman",serif;"><span style="background-color: transparent; font-size: 14.6667px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline;">The sample you’re looking at originates from a specific site along the Snake River near Mora, MN. However the sample above only represents a portion of the river bed. Below are two examples from the same site along Snake River. </span></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Georgia,"Times New Roman",serif;"><a href="http://2.bp.blogspot.com/-aJ07_A4Qnf4/VZ1fkVL71MI/AAAAAAAAAE8/neabwDLhSwo/s1600/Slide1.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="300" src="http://2.bp.blogspot.com/-aJ07_A4Qnf4/VZ1fkVL71MI/AAAAAAAAAE8/neabwDLhSwo/s400/Slide1.jpg" width="400" /></a></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Georgia,"Times New Roman",serif;"><span style="background-color: transparent; font-size: 14.6667px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline;">This contrast is part of what makes sediment interesting. Although these samples were physically close to one another, the amount of mussels present varied. </span></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Georgia,"Times New Roman",serif;"><span style="background-color: transparent; font-size: 14.6667px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline;"><b>What are some factors for variability? </b></span></span><br />
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<span style="font-family: Georgia,"Times New Roman",serif;"><span style="background-color: transparent; font-size: 14.6667px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline;">biological influences</span></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Georgia,"Times New Roman",serif;"><span style="background-color: transparent; font-size: 14.6667px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline;">human influence</span></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Georgia,"Times New Roman",serif;"><span style="background-color: transparent; font-size: 14.6667px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline;"></span></span></div>
<span style="font-family: Georgia,"Times New Roman",serif;"><br /><span style="background-color: transparent; font-size: 14.6667px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline;">These all play a role in creating how the bed of a river looks and who is able to live there. Stay tuned for some sediment stories</span><span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-size: 14.6667px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline;">!</span></span><br />
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<br />Anonymousnoreply@blogger.com2tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3691071933624301272.post-54880309710256818062015-07-08T10:16:00.000-07:002015-07-08T10:40:00.499-07:00Why Research Mussels?<div dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.38; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt;">
<span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: Georgia, Times New Roman, serif; font-size: 14.666666666666666px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">When you look at a river, the first thing you think of is probably not the small invertebrates living within it. But there is a lot more going on under the surface than you might expect. </span></div>
<div dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.38; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt;">
<span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: Georgia, Times New Roman, serif; font-size: 14.666666666666666px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">Freshwater mussels are just one component of a diverse and complex ecosystem. Together, these parts allow us to enjoy the many benefits of a healthy river, from canoeing and fishing to taking in a great view. In ecology, perks that people get from an ecosystem are called ecosystem services, and you might be surprised by the variety of ways mussels are in your life. </span></div>
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<span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: Georgia, Times New Roman, serif; font-size: 14.666666666666666px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">Historically, mussels have been an important material used in making buttons thanks to the pearly insides of their shells. While buttons today aren’t made of mussel shells, mussels are still used in the pearl industry. Shells of freshwater mussels are also important beyond their use as pearl-making machines, and are even important culturally. Their many colors, shapes, and sizes are key to their ornamental role. Who can resist picking up shells from the side of a riverbank! </span><br />
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<span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: Arial; font-size: 14.666666666666666px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"><img height="304px;" src="https://lh5.googleusercontent.com/pGQDZuXvncZrWTxseQrvJNxMyu63VO7phMmgOFUskI0v5ckuRZtfPwjKkbiiS_0uBrVVQOaeS1yDpckjaicvxGk6whNwI4Vifh0o8-_7FmRHbOJjTYDlafIcsW4d1qG-xLSRKi4" style="-webkit-transform: rotate(0.00rad); border: none; transform: rotate(0.00rad);" width="460px;" /></span><br />
<span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-size: 14.666666666666666px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"><span id="docs-internal-guid-8ba7325c-6eaa-4bf3-4d9b-c82304a66378" style="font-family: Georgia, Times New Roman, serif;"><span style="font-size: 14.6666666666667px; vertical-align: baseline;">Photo Source: Thad Allender </span><span style="color: #1155cc; font-size: 14.6666666666667px; text-decoration: underline; vertical-align: baseline;"><a href="http://www2.ljworld.com/photos/galleries/2007/nov/05/freshwater_mussels/" style="text-decoration: none;">http://www2.ljworld.com/photos/galleries/2007/nov/05/freshwater_mussels/</a></span></span></span><br />
<span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: Georgia, Times New Roman, serif; font-size: 14.666666666666666px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"><br /></span></div>
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<span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: Georgia, Times New Roman, serif; font-size: 14.666666666666666px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"><br /></span></div>
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<span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: Georgia, Times New Roman, serif; font-size: 14.666666666666666px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">And of course, mussels directly influence the river systems they live in! Their filter feeding improves water clarity, signaling when a water system may be contaminated. This makes them a great indicator species for environmental conditions as well as enhancing the beauty and cleanliness of our rivers.They physically modify the habitat by burrowing down into the substrate and taking up that space, which can also move sediment around. Mussels also can anchor nutrients by excreting organic matter in the form of waste into the substrate, preventing everything being swept away downstream.</span><br />
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<a href="http://2.bp.blogspot.com/-mcZtTIE7usg/VZ1codG1ymI/AAAAAAAAAEw/BjSLFWFidpU/s1600/DSCF0431.JPG" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="300" src="http://2.bp.blogspot.com/-mcZtTIE7usg/VZ1codG1ymI/AAAAAAAAAEw/BjSLFWFidpU/s400/DSCF0431.JPG" width="400" /></a></div>
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<span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: Georgia, Times New Roman, serif; font-size: 14.666666666666666px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">A site on the Snake River where we collected mussels this week.</span></div>
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<span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-size: 14.666666666666666px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"><span id="docs-internal-guid-8ba7325c-6ea7-b78f-f1b1-28ed45a65458" style="font-family: Georgia, Times New Roman, serif;"><br /></span></span></div>
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<span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: Georgia, Times New Roman, serif; font-size: 14.666666666666666px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">Clearly, there is more to mussels than the average Minnesotan might assume. And because upwards of 70% of our native mussel species are threatened or endangered, it’s important to understand where mussels live and what they do. Keep reading our blog as we investigate these questions and continue Mission: Mussel. </span></div>
Anonymousnoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3691071933624301272.post-24970786105053495522015-06-29T11:55:00.000-07:002015-06-29T13:38:36.727-07:00Meet the Students<span style="font-family: Verdana,sans-serif;"><span style="font-size: small;"><br /></span></span>
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<b><span style="font-family: Georgia,"Times New Roman",serif;"><span style="font-size: small;">Welcome to our blog! We are excited to document our summer in the Hornbach/MacGregor lab at Macalester College! But who are we?</span></span></b></div>
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<span style="font-family: Georgia,"Times New Roman",serif;"><span style="font-size: small;"><b>MAYA </b></span></span></div>
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<a href="http://2.bp.blogspot.com/-FwrRys436YE/VZGRmzE_7wI/AAAAAAAAAEg/-fuhiXrv1Mw/s1600/Maya.jpeg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: left; float: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="286" src="http://2.bp.blogspot.com/-FwrRys436YE/VZGRmzE_7wI/AAAAAAAAAEg/-fuhiXrv1Mw/s320/Maya.jpeg" width="320" /></a></div>
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<a href="http://2.bp.blogspot.com/-50mBYh4iB-U/VZF9cizJl0I/AAAAAAAAADg/QVZ002Bd4Y8/s1600/Maya2.jpeg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: left; float: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="367" src="http://2.bp.blogspot.com/-50mBYh4iB-U/VZF9cizJl0I/AAAAAAAAADg/QVZ002Bd4Y8/s400/Maya2.jpeg" width="400" /></a><span style="font-family: Georgia,"Times New Roman",serif;"><span style="font-size: small;"><span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline;">Hi-ya,
I’m Maya! I’m a senior Biology major and almost Japanese minor. I’m
from La Crosse, Wisconsin and I enjoy petting puppies, seeking free food
events, taking naps, people watching, and hanging out with my rice
cooker. My favorite invertebrate phylum is Arthropoda, but there are
some outstanding Mollusca members as well. I do not enjoy things with
more than six legs (other than millipedes and crabs). I am interested in
conservation biology and learning how to apply other disciplines to
biology, which got me excited about researching native freshwater
mussels this summer. So far, my favorite mussel is the Three Ridge (</span><span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-style: italic; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline;">Amblema plicata</span><span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline;">)--it constantly defies expectations and can have more than three ridges! My favorite color today is slaty blue. </span></span></span></div>
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<b>CLARA</b></div>
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<a href="http://1.bp.blogspot.com/-swLfFsqQWew/VZGRSxnIShI/AAAAAAAAADw/KSNwD14CPmA/s1600/Clara.jpeg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: right; float: right; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: 1em;"><img border="0" height="179" src="http://1.bp.blogspot.com/-swLfFsqQWew/VZGRSxnIShI/AAAAAAAAADw/KSNwD14CPmA/s320/Clara.jpeg" width="320" /></a><span style="font-family: Georgia,"Times New Roman",serif;"><span style="font-size: small;"><span id="docs-internal-guid-5b5925b6-4016-25c8-cf56-db994d09cd0b" style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline;">I’m
Clara! I’m a senior Biology major and unofficial art minor. I’m from
Arlington, Massachusetts. I like rowing, biking, pesto, camping,
gummies, denim on denim, water bottles, and my favorite phylum (besides
Mollusca, of course) is Cnidaria--gotta love those siphonophores! I
really enjoy exploring the boundary between science and art (although I
don’t really think there is one) and discovering how each one can
communicate the same ideas in such different, and yet such similar,
ways. I love being outside, especially doing scientific research related
to wildlife and conservation, and the mussel project seemed super
cool--the wet suits are just a bonus! My favorite mussel is definitely
the Wabash pigtoe (F. flava) and my favorite part of this project so far
is watching mussels stick their little squishy feet out of their shell
to lick their neighbors. You can often find me watching my basil plants
grow and protecting them from hungry housemates. I’m super excited for
this summer!!</span></span></span> <br />
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<b>BROOKE</b></div>
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<a href="http://3.bp.blogspot.com/-vJO879wjLpg/VZGRWxG22GI/AAAAAAAAAEA/z6ffTlKAfKE/s1600/Brooke.jpeg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: left; float: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="320" src="http://3.bp.blogspot.com/-vJO879wjLpg/VZGRWxG22GI/AAAAAAAAAEA/z6ffTlKAfKE/s320/Brooke.jpeg" width="179" /></a><span style="font-family: Georgia,"Times New Roman",serif;"><span style="font-size: small;"><span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline;"><span id="docs-internal-guid-5b5925b6-4015-ccd8-0d58-39e8fe1fb1a5" style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline;">Hi,
I’m Brooke from Stillwater, Minnesota. I am a Junior Geology major and
math minor here at Macalester. I first became interested in this project
because it provided an opportunity to combine multiple fields of
science (geology and biology), and a chance to study the health of
Minnesota’s native mussels and the river systems they live in. Prior to
this project, I knew little to nothing about mussels, but after some
time spent in the field, the heelsplitter mussels have become my
favorite. My geology side wants to say my favorite mineral - olivine. I
enjoy spending free-time playing volleyball and going to the lake!</span></span></span></span><br />
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<a href="http://3.bp.blogspot.com/-h2TVCBYT9-o/VZGRW9I_W_I/AAAAAAAAAEI/wWdu0McBrYo/s1600/Brooke2.jpeg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: right; float: right; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: 1em;"><img border="0" height="236" src="http://3.bp.blogspot.com/-h2TVCBYT9-o/VZGRW9I_W_I/AAAAAAAAAEI/wWdu0McBrYo/s320/Brooke2.jpeg" width="320" /></a> <br />
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<b>MOLLY </b></div>
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<a href="http://3.bp.blogspot.com/-WynwmiM1GNI/VZGRZdmKacI/AAAAAAAAAEM/_8v1252feoU/s1600/Molly.jpeg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: right; float: right; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: 1em;"><img border="0" height="179" src="http://3.bp.blogspot.com/-WynwmiM1GNI/VZGRZdmKacI/AAAAAAAAAEM/_8v1252feoU/s320/Molly.jpeg" width="320" /></a></div>
<div dir="ltr" id="docs-internal-guid-5b5925b6-4015-f8ad-1749-6c09acaa2841" style="line-height: 1.38; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt;">
<span style="font-family: Georgia,"Times New Roman",serif;"><span style="font-size: small;"><span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline;">Hey all! </span></span></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Georgia,"Times New Roman",serif;"><span style="font-size: small;"><span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline;">Molly here. Who am I? Well...</span></span></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Georgia,"Times New Roman",serif;"><span style="font-size: small;"><span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline;">I grew up collecting agates and eating “world famous” pie in tourist town Two Harbors, MN, along Lake Superior. My interest in rocks metamorphosed into a full-fledged college career, as I am now a Macalester senior majoring in Geology. When I’m not draining my snorkel nose piece of water, I can be found collecting fossils by the Mississippi, grocery shopping, and trying to learn languages. Favorite color: orange. Another thing that is incredibly important to know is that I love steamed broccoli. My interests in this project developed as a junior, when I learned about river processes from a more geological standpoint. I am excited to now look at river systems with both a biological and geological focus in mind. What I really like about mussels so far, is that while they may feel like rocks sometimes, they’re actually alive (which is not a normal occurrence for the average geologist!). Favorite mussel: any heelsplitter variety!</span></span></span></div>
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<a href="http://2.bp.blogspot.com/-FzCA0EVG9ps/VZGRZvYTujI/AAAAAAAAAEY/4bEN93kR0mk/s1600/Molly2.jpeg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="223" src="http://2.bp.blogspot.com/-FzCA0EVG9ps/VZGRZvYTujI/AAAAAAAAAEY/4bEN93kR0mk/s400/Molly2.jpeg" width="400" /></a></div>
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<span style="font-family: Georgia,"Times New Roman",serif;"><span style="font-size: small;"><span id="docs-internal-guid-5b5925b6-4016-25c8-cf56-db994d09cd0b" style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline;"><b>Stay tuned for our many mussel adventures to come!</b></span></span></span></div>
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