The nearshore phosphorus shunt: a consequence of ecosystem engineering by dreissenids in the Laurentian Great Lakes

Dreissenid mussels have been exceptionally successful invaders in North American lakes and rivers, especially in the lower Laurentian Great Lakes. As benthic filter feeders capable of attaching to hard substrates, the magnitudes of their biomass and filtering activity in nearshore waters are without precedent. The dreissenid colonization has implications for the removal and fate of materials filtered from the water by the mussels and for the longer-term development of the nearshore benthic community and lake ecosystem. A conceptual model, the nearshore shunt, seeks to describe a fundamental redirection of nutrient and energy flow consequent to dreissenid establishment. The model explains some emergent problems…