Date of Award
2025
Degree Name
Biological Sciences
College
College of Science
Type of Degree
M.S.
Document Type
Thesis
First Advisor
Dr. Thomas Jones
Second Advisor
Dr. Mindy Armstead
Third Advisor
Dr. Anna Mummert
Abstract
Although North America contains the largest diversity of freshwater mussels in the world, only ~24% of species in the United States and Canada have stable populations. This group provides unique hurdles for surveying, and current unionid survey protocols include neither longitudinal studies nor randomization of sites. This project conducts a metadata analysis of freshwater mussels in the Greenup Pool of the Ohio River (GPOR) to answer three questions: 1. Does a combination of longitudinal scope, randomization of sites, and historic methodology of surveying result in useful occupancy/detection models (ODMs) of unionids in large streams at the family level? 2. Does it at the species level? 3. Does the current protocol for naiad surveys oversample? I hypothesize that this refined form of sampling, data collection, and analysis will result in successful ODMs at both the family and species level for unionids in the GPOR. Furthermore, I predict that the WVDNR’s unionid protocol oversamples – allowing future researchers of the Ohio River to sample fewer transects with similar results. The results appear to support these claims, suggesting that applying similar methodologies may improve the accuracy of future surveys while mitigating costs.
Subject(s)
Conservation biology.
Biology.
Freshwater mussels.
Surveying -- Regulations.
Ecology.
Ohio River.
Recommended Citation
Annarino, Tyler, "A metadata analysis of unionid mussels of the Greenup Pool of the Ohio River using occupancy modeling and species area curves" (2025). Theses, Dissertations and Capstones. 1928.
https://mds.marshall.edu/etd/1928
Included in
Biology Commons, Natural Resources and Conservation Commons, Population Biology Commons, Terrestrial and Aquatic Ecology Commons
