May 2023 - 36

Plain pocketbook mussels are an integral aspect in their native ecosystems because they are filter feeders that naturally clean rivers. (Photo by Chris Martin)
A LONG PROCESS
How do you find a creature that doesn't
want to be found in remote stretches of water
and rocks? With a lot of labor and even more
patience, Tronstad said.
Years ago, before a relatively new science
called eDNA, researchers only found mussels
the old-fashioned way - by looking.
Experts started by scanning stream banks
for shells.
" Usually if I'm finding shells, there are
mussels around, " Tronstad said.
That's the easy part.
In shallow streams, Tronstad uses a bucket
that looks like an orange traffic cone with
plexiglass on one end to scan the bottom of
the stream. In bigger streams, she snorkels.
In creeks so full of muck no one can see
the bottom, she and other researchers look
for mussels with their hands and feet.
" It's highly inefficient, " Tronstad said.
" These visual methods can be really tough
because at certain times of the year mussels
will bury themselves in sediment. They barely
have a little shell poking out, just enough
to breathe. "
36 | May 2023
Fortunately, a relatively new technique called
eDNA takes some of the guesswork out. The
process, short for environmental DNA, takes
biological samples out of the water and analyzes
them to identify what organisms live in
a stream. Mussel DNA is particularly easy to
capture because with each expulsion of water
they excrete identifying cells, Siddons said.
It's through eDNA researchers verified plain
pocketbook mussels no longer lived in the
North Platte River, despite plenty of shell evidence
showing they once lived and thrived
there.
" We built dams and changed the flow and
fish assemblages, and then added pollution
issues, dewatering and major fires, " Siddons
said. " It was a combination of factors that led
to extirpating the species by accident. "
After years of work, Siddons and others
at Game and Fish began the slow process of
reintroducing the species in 2020. They've
transplanted thousands of plain pocketbook
mussels raised at the North Platte hatchery
in Nebraska and will continue monitoring
their survival and looking for evidence
of reproduction.

May 2023

Table of Contents for the Digital Edition of May 2023

May 2023 - 1
May 2023 - 2
May 2023 - 3
May 2023 - 4
May 2023 - 5
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https://www.nxtbook.com/wyominggame/WyomingWildlife/December2020
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