Dr. Gretchen Rollwagen-Bollens School of the Environment
Native and invasive bivalves in the Pacific Northwest: Co-occurrence, habitat associations and potential competition in the face of climate change.
Native freshwater bivalves (i.e. mussels) are in decline globally, especially in the Columbia River Basin. Mussels are critical for stream ecosystems, and a tribal “first food.” Habitat degradation and invasive bivalves (i.e. Asian clams) are threats to native mussels.
Dr. Rollwagen-Bollens co-directs the Aquatic Ecology Lab at WSU Vancouver, and her group is collaborating with the Confederated Tribes of the Umatilla Indian Reservation to investigate which habitats support native mussels and how mussels interact with invasive clams. The Teacher Partner would specifically focus on how aspects of water quality (e.g. chlorophyll a concentration, temperature, turbidity, etc.) in shallow habitats of the Columbia River helps to explain where native mussels and invasive clams are found (or not found). The teacher would assist in the field with data collection and in the laboratory with data compilation and statistical analyses, to better understand how the distribution of native and invasive bivalves relate to their environment, especially in a changing climate.
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