Impacts of Zebra Mussels on Aquatic Communities and their Role as Ecosystem Engineers

Abstract

Zebra mussels (Dreissena polymorpha) are not only an extremely aggressive invasive species, often dominating water bodies they invade, they are also very effective ecosystem engineers, altering the environments they invade. They are effective engineers, altering both ecosystem structure and function. They change existing and provide new habitat for other organisms, affect trophic interactions and the availability of foods for both pelagic species and other benthic species, and they affect the rates of other ecosystem processes including mineralization of nutrients, oxygen availability and sedimentation rates. These physical impacts on the environment feedback directly to other species that interact with or are impacted by zebra mussels, or indirectly through food chains, disturbance, succession, or other longer-term community and ecosystem processes.