BY ALAN D. CHRISTIAN

Mussels are a hot topic in Arkansas, and ARKANSAS STATE UNIVERSITY faculty and students are taking the lead in understanding them.

In an international symposium that took place at The Peabody Little Rock between the 11th and the 16th of March, four ASU faculty members, nine graduate students and three undergraduates led the discussions on the most current research on mollusks. With nearly 50,000 living species and 35,000 fossil species, mollusks are one of the most diversified animal groups on earth.

Freshwater snails are the most endangered group of animals in North America with 590 species of which 60 percent are considered extinct, endangered, or of some sort of special concern. Freshwater mussels are the second the most endangered group of freshwater animals in North America with nearly 300 species of which it is estimated that 70 percent of the species are extinct, endangered, or of sort of special concern.

The theme of this year's Symposium was "Directions in Mollusk Conservation: Molecules to Ecosystems." Approximately 265 academic, state and federal agency, non-government organization, and industry personnel from across North America attended the conference that consisted of nine invited Plenary Session presentations, 51 contributed poster presentations, and 80 contributed platform presentations.

A total of 15 presentations were given by ASU Biological Sciences and Environmental Sciences faculty (Dr. Alan D. Christian, Jerry L. Farris, John L. Harris, Jeannette M. Loutsch), and Biological Sciences and Environmental Sciences graduate students (Ryan M. Allen, Betsy Ashcraft, Allison M. Asher, David M. Hayes, Raven L. Lawson, Holly C. Martin, Mickey W. Matthews, Andrew J. Peck, Sara E. Seagraves and Nathan Wentz) and Biological Sciences undergraduate students (David Baldridge, Tracy A. Bianco, and Kentaro Inoue).

One of the Plenary talks "Freshwater mussel ecosystem ecology: The integrated functional roles of water quality, pollution and physical habitat in supporting adult and early life stages of freshwater mussels and their role in nutrient recycling" was co-authored by two ASU faculty (Christian and J.L. Farris).

An additional 127 individuals attended the Habitat Restoration workshop on Monday the 12th of March that consisted of ten invited workshop presentations from leading experts across North America. One of the invited talks "Ecohydrolics and freshwater mussel aggregate locations in large river systems: empirical evidence of the refugia concept and promising research areas" was presented by a ASU graduate student (Andrew J. Peck) and two ASU faculty (Christian and John L. Harris)

This symposium was part of the Fifth Biennial Freshwater Mollusk Conservation Society Symposium and Habitat Restoration Workshop. A-State Christian and professor John L. Harris were the chair and assistant chair of the Symposium and Workshop.

The Freshwater Mollusk Conservation Society is devoted to the advocacy for, public education about, and conservation science of freshwater mollusks, North America's most imperiled fauna. It is a non-profit organization made up of approximately 350 members from academic, local, state and federal agency, non-government organizations, and industry employees that have an interest in the animals.

Freshwater mussels are long lived, over 50 years in age for some species, invertebrates that have a complicated life cycle which includes living on a host fish or amphibian for a short period of time. Because of this complex life cycle, understanding the ecology and biology of freshwater mussels also requires knowing the ecology and biology of the fish and amphibians on which they live.

Some of the identified threats to freshwater mussels and snails include habitat loss, water quality degradation through sediment, nutrient and pesticide runoff from various land use practices such agriculture, urbanization, deforestation, harvest for the historic button production and the current cultured pearl industry, over collection from the scientific community and competition with the invasive exotic species such as the zebra mussel.

For more information contact the ASU Department of Biological Sciences at biology@astate.edu.

Dr. Christian is assistant professor at the ASU Department of Biological Sciences.