A Mussel Survey Off Of The Tennessee River

I've been giving exams over the last week, so my time's been pressed. The whole of last Tuesday was spent participating in a survey for mussels in a creek off of the south side of the Tennessee River upstream from Huntsville. Three divers, two helpers and me started at the stagnant, super muddy upstream end and worked down into the mouth of the Tennessee, and out a ways down the Tennessee shore.

We found few species and few individuals in the muddy upstream area. When we hit the mouth of the creek, in the picture below, the diversity and abundance went way up; we found ohio pigtoes, a black sandshell, lots of elephant ears, pimplebacks, and three ridges along with the dominant species in this creek, the yellow sandshell. The small yellow wooden boat in the picture was used to hold equipment and dragged down the creek. In the foreground of the picture on the right you can see dead elephant ear shells.

Below is an upper area of the creek, with a clay/mud/detritus bottom and low flow. Few mussels are happy with that environment; most prefer flowing water over gravel or sand. Luckily for us the day was relatively warm, about 70 F. The survey took all day, and the divers went home and immediately went to bed from the exhaustion of being in 55 F water in wet suits. But I think we all had a good time, and generated a lot of data which I'll post in its entirety after we give it to the property owners.