Identifying suitable habitat of two federally endangered mussels in the Middle Fork and Salt Fork Vermilion rivers

Freshwater mussels are the most imperiled freshwater taxa and translocation of these endangered species is one option for conservation. However, suitable habitat for translocated mussels is often unknown. The amount of suitable habitat for the federally endangered Northern Riffleshell and Clubshell in the Middle Fork and Salt Fork Vermilion rivers in Illinois has not been determined. To identify suitable habitat, I sampled 79 sites in the two rivers looking for closely related surrogate species of Northern Riffleshell and Clubshell, along with their host fishes. I determined if suitable habitat was present by modeling presence/absence and abundance of surrogate mussel species to create a habitat suitability index and validated those model predictions. I also determined the current distributions of the host fishes of Northern Riffleshell and Clubshell. My results indicate there are more suitable habitats than previously believed throughout both rivers. These rivers should be able to support a larger population of these mussels and these results can be used to identify potential sites for future translocations.

Name thesis:degree_name

M.S.

Level thesis:degree_level

Thesis

Discipline thesis:degree_discipline

Natural Res & Env Sciences

Grantor

University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign

Year dc:date

2022

Author dc:creator

• Ruellan, Hugo

Contributors dc:contributor

• Stodola, Kirk
• Suski, Cory
• Larson, Eric R

• Freshwater mussels
• habitat suitability models
• surrogate species
• host fishes
• translocations
• conservation

Statement dc:rights

• Copyright 2022 Hugo Ruellan

Language dc:language

en, eng

Handle dc:identifier

https://hdl.handle.net/2142/115345

OAI record oai:identifier

https://www.ideals.illinois.edu/oai-pmh?verb=GetRecord&metadataPrefix=etdms&identifier=oai%3Awww.ideals.illinois.edu%3A2142%2F115345