Invasive Mussel Coastal Transport From an Already Invaded Estuary to a Nearby Archipelago Detected in DNA and Zooplankton Surveys.

Coastal waters of Lake Superior are generally inhospitable to the establishment of invasive . mussels (both and ). have inhabited the Saint Louis River estuary (SLRE; largest commercial port in the Laurentian Great Lakes) for over three decades, but only in the last few years have small colonies been found in the Apostle Islands National Lakeshore (APIS, an archipelago situated 85 km to the east of SLRE) A 2017 survey determined a low abundance spatial distribution in APIS, with the largest colonies on the north and west islands which suggested potential veliger transport from the SLRE longshore currents.

Early detection monitoring for non-indigenous fishes; comparison of survey approaches during two species introductions in a Great Lakes port.

Assessing relative performance of different sampling methods used for early detection monitoring (EDM) is a critical step in understanding the likelihood of detecting new non-indigenous species (NIS) in an environment of interest. EDM performance metrics are typically based on the probability of detecting established NIS or rare indigenous species; however, detection probability estimates for these proxies may not accurately reflect survey effectiveness for newly introduced NIS. We used data from three different EDM survey approaches that varied by targeted life-stage (adult-juvenile versus ichthyoplankton), media (physical fish versus environmental DNA), and taxonomic method (morphology-based versus DNA-based taxonomy) to explore relative detection sensitivity for recently introduced white bass () and gizzard shad () in the Port of Duluth-Superior, a NIS introduction hot spot within the Laurentian Great Lakes.

Identification of Ruffe larvae () in the St. Louis River, Lake Superior: Clarification and guidance regarding morphological descriptions.

Non-native ruffe (; family Percidae) were first detected in the Laurentian Great Lakes in 1986, and are not included in regional larval fish keys which were published several years prior to their discovery. In addition, subsequent scientific literature has inconsistently described ruffe larvae. As a result, identification of larval ruffe remains challenging.