Rapid assessment of population in Lake Erie using underwater videography.
Alexander Y Karatayev, Lyubov E Burlakova, Knut Mehler, Elizabeth K Hinchey, Molly Wick, Martyna Bakowska, Natalia Mrozinska
Author Information
Alexander Y Karatayev: Great Lakes Center, SUNY Buffalo State, Buffalo, NY, USA.
Lyubov E Burlakova: Great Lakes Center, SUNY Buffalo State, Buffalo, NY, USA.
Knut Mehler: Great Lakes Center, SUNY Buffalo State, Buffalo, NY, USA.
Elizabeth K Hinchey: United States Environmental Protection Agency, Great Lakes National Program Office, Chicago, IL, USA.
Molly Wick: ORISE (Oak Ridge Institute for Science and Education), 100 ORAU Way, Oak Ridge, TN, 37830, USA.
Martyna Bakowska: Faculty of Natural Science, Department of Hydrobiology, Kazimierz Wielki University in Bydgoszcz, 30 J.K. Chodkiewicz St, Bydgoszcz, Poland.
Natalia Mrozinska: Faculty of Natural Science, Department of Hydrobiology, Kazimierz Wielki University in Bydgoszcz, 30 J.K. Chodkiewicz St, Bydgoszcz, Poland.
Dreissenid bivalves ( and ) are considered the most aggressive freshwater invaders inflicting profound ecological and economic impacts on the waterbodies that they colonize. Severity of these impacts depends on dreissenid population sizes which vary dramatically across space and time. We developed a novel method that analyzes video recorded using a Benthic Imaging System (BIS) in near real-time to assess dreissenid distribution and density across large waterbodies and tested it on Lake Erie. Lake Erie basins differ dramatically in morphometry, turbidity, and productivity, as well as in distribution, density, and length-frequency distribution, providing an excellent model to test the applicability of our method across large and dynamic environmental gradients. Results of rapid assessment were subsequently compared with dreissenid density obtained from Ponar grab samples collected at the same sites. In the eastern and central basins, the differences in basin-wide density estimations from BIS and Ponar were 3% and 23%, respectively. In the western basin, this method had limited application due to high turbidity and abundance of small (< 10 mm length) mussels. By substantially reducing the time required to assess dreissenids across large areas, rapid assessment could be a useful and cost-effective addition for monitoring their populations.
References
J Great Lakes Res. 2020 Oct 1;46(5):1469-1478
[PMID: 33424103]
