Snuffbox: More than a filter

 In this episode of Rarefied, host Meredith Meeker dives into the fascinating world of freshwater mussels, focusing on the snuffbox mussel's crucial role in maintaining healthy freshwater ecosystems. Joined by Dr. Catherine Febria and PhD student Lauren Damphousse from the University of Windsor, the discussion covers the unique biology and habitat of the snuffbox, the challenges they face due to environmental changes, and ongoing conservation efforts. 

Key highlights include the mussels' intricate reproductive strategies, their status as canaries in the coal mine for water quality, and the importance of community and conservation efforts to ensure their survival. 

https://www.facetsjournal.com/doi/10.1139/facets-2022-0207  

Bkejwanong Eco-Keepers love mussels, too: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=NvNSe6gCbDI&t=2s

Snuffbox traps a logperch: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-1YcaIN8cRs      https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=I0YTBj0WHkU

00:00 Introduction to Rarefied Podcast 

00:41 Meet the Snuffbox Mussel 

01:27 Guest Introductions 

03:38 Understanding Freshwater Mussels 

06:13 Habitat and Behavior of Mussels 

09:21 Reproductive Strategies of Mussels 

14:58 Threats to Freshwater Mussels 

19:14 Conservation Efforts and Community Involvement 

25:15 Field Work and Research Techniques 

30:41 Understanding Mussel Translocation Challenges 

31:57 Freshwater Restoration and the Endangered Species Act 

32:43 Assessing the Mackey Protocol and Translocation Data 

33:19 The Importance of Site-Specific Conditions 

37:08 Community Involvement in Conservation Efforts 

39:32 Citizen Science and the Clam Counter App 

41:38 Field Stories and Team Building 

43:27 Rapid Fire Questions and Fun Facts 

51:22 Hope and Future Directions in Conservation 

54:22 Conclusion and Final Thoughts 

Transcript

Theme Song 0:00

In every stream, in every tree, a story lives, a legacy. Let's listen close, let's take a stand, to keep the wild across the land. In every stream, in every tree, a story lives, a legacy.

Meredith 0:23

Welcome you found us. Let the adventure begin. This is rarefied, the podcast where we learn to love some of our rarest and most imperiled species. I'm your host Meredith Meer, and this week we're getting comfy and slipping under the covers of our riverbed. We're going to meet a species that most people never see, but plays a surprising role in keeping fresh water ecosystems healthy. It's the snuff box, mussel, small, sturdy, and quietly holding things together in streams and rivers across Eastern North America. Also a surprising fun fact is that you can actually tell male and female SNF box muscles apart, not something that even crossed my mind. There's so much to learn about this endangered species globally. The SNF box is imperiled. Its numbers have dropped as rivers have been damned polluted and disconnected from the natural rhythms. Mus rely on to survive. To help us understand what makes these mussels so important and how we can restore the freshwater habitats that depend on. I'm joined by Dr. Catherine Feria. Catherine is an associate professor at the University of Windsor. And holds a tier two Canada research chair in Freshwater Restoration Ecology. She founded the Healthy Headwaters Lab where they embrace ecological human and cultural dimensions in their collective work. And with a diverse constellation of projects and partners, they're helping to deepen understanding relationships and ultimately accelerate freshwater restoration actions using freshwater mussels as a focal group to help drive watershed scale partnerships and actions. Joining Catherine is her PhD student, Lauren, who is doing her research on how to translocate endangered muscles to keep them out of harm's way. So hold onto your tissues and let's go deep with the snuff box. Really excited to talk about freshwater mussels and the snuff box. Great name. But speaking of names, if you wouldn't mind taking a moment to introducing yourselves and where you guys are coming in from.

Catherine Febria (she/her/siya) 2:36

Sure. I am Catherine Feria. I am an associate professor at the University of Windsor and I'm a freshwater ecologist. The University of Windsor sits in the traditional territory of the three Fires, Confederacy of First Nations, the Ojibwe, the oa, and the Bawa. And we have a wonderful privilege of doing our work in the basin here and literally on the shores of Zibi or the Detroit River. And yeah, my pronouns are she or her or she.

Lauren (she/her) 3:05

And I'm Lauren also to by she her pronouns. I am a PhD candidate in Catherine's lab, the Healthy Headwaters Lab. I am lucky enough to study freshwater mussels. Or my research mainly evaluating conservation efforts that are currently being performed to protect species at risk.

Meredith 3:21

I'm so excited to talk about the snuff box and all cool things, muscles, because I think sadly, you know, most people are familiar with muscles when they're on their plate and don't really the actual animals or you know their ecology. So maybe to start us off, would you be able to tell us like what is a snuff box or what is a freshwater mussel and why are they so unique?

Catherine Febria (she/her/siya) 3:47

It's freshwater mussels are a type of mollusk. They're in the family union. They look like kind of pearly mussels, but they, the ones that we look at are freshwater, so they're bivalves. They pretty much live looking like a rock, but they are an invertebrate organism. They are a really diverse assemblage of many different species that have the most fun and interesting names. One of them, which is the Snuffbox. So over to you, Lauren.

Lauren (she/her) 4:16

Yeah, so as Kat mentioned, the snuff box just one of many muscles with a very strange name. And it is a part of the uni day family, which is actually the dominant family muscle family in North America they have kind of a triangular shaped shell which is with this really strong ridge on the side, a posterior ridge, even though only other like muscle heads will know what I'm talking about. And they can really range in color from kind of a tan to a brown. And they have these really beautiful bluegreen drippy paint markings kind of down their shell. And like most freshwater mussels, they sit partially buried in river beds and filter water. Playing a huge role in keeping ecosystems healthy.

Meredith 4:52

And like you said, they kind of, you know, look like rocks, but they're actually these live invertebrates, are they easy to tell apart? Like how do you, like you're talking about it's posterior bridge, is this something, you know, if people were walking in the know the difference.

Catherine Febria (she/her/siya) 5:11

I'd say so., we've had lots of different conversations with people about mussels, what they know versus what they don't know. I think in terms of the native mussels that we find in the Great Lake Basin. They range incredibly from small sort of finger sized muscles with a certain shape. So I think they range in their size, they range in their coloring, they range in the patterning and even where they live. Sometimes we talk to people and they think it's a zebra muscle or they think it's the qua muscle or they think it's a, a snail or a clam. But the unit Yaday family have such a diversity in how these muscles look and behave as well as their shapes. So once you see them, you almost can't unsee them. And once you recognize their, the key features about, you know, one particular one like the sm snuff box, you then get to know it's sort of a gateway to these other interesting morphologies and personalities that make up the uni on day family.

Meredith 6:11

And you said they live in different places. Like is this along the river? What's the habitat of a snuff box like?

Catherine Febria (she/her/siya) 6:18

That's a really good question and it's something that we've heard lots of different and seen lots of different places in the river where they can live. We've found them in. A range of different rivers from small, agricultural drains to large rivers. So our lab focuses on streams and rivers, so we're looking at flowing water ecosystems, these river systems are also diverse. There's ripples, which are these gravelly parts of the river. There are pools that are sort of lower, deeper, slower, slowing, flowing water. You can imagine that the majority of mussels and any invertebrate that needs oxygen as well as fish prefer things like the gravelly habitats where there's a lot of oxygen rushing through the stream. Bed oxygenating these spaces. And really that's where we see some of our densest muscle beds. You know, they call them muscle beds for a reason. They're these dense assemblages of lots of different species living together, filtering and living out their lives. In those sections that said, we found muscles in deeper parts of the river and slower parts of the river and lower oxygenated sections of the river. So these might be some of the more tolerant species that can withstand a different kind of living condition. And I think that's what's really beautiful. As diverse as a river can be. You can find mussels making a home in these different habitats. And Lauren knows this better than I do. So maybe you have other thoughts and observations about the different parts of a river where mussel live.

Lauren (she/her) 7:40

There are some species that you really come to expect in those really gravelly kind of pristine parts of a stream. And then there's some that you just know when you get into the muckiest part where you're like trying to pull your waiter out that you're gonna find a heel splitter of giant floater. Yeah. It sounds like we're making fun of them, but this is just their names.

Meredith 7:59

I mean, when I first learned about muscles and I was like going through the list of them, they sounded either like a really great Shakespearean insult or like a Harry Potter spell.

Catherine Febria (she/her/siya) 8:11

Yeah. The pimple back, you know, and the three ridge. And like the riffle shell, for example, the northern riffle shell, which is one of the species we know and the one of our favorite places to mussel you can imagine riffle shell. So riffles are a very particular part of the river where that are very gravely and oxygenated. I don't think that that is a coincidence that whoever named them the riffle shell was thinking about where they found that muss. And sure enough, they're found in some of the most well oxygenated, roughly grovey sections of that river. So that was, you know, in terms of where they live, their names tell us a lot too.

Meredith 8:43

It is great when a species name kind of gives you a little bit of a hint as to something about it. You know, sometimes I get annoyed, I'm like, oh, bird names. They're so literal. But then you get like Kirkland's warbler, which I think they're changing all of these names now, but you're like, that tells me nothing the species. And so we talked a lot about like parts of the river and they're cleaning the river. They're playing this really important role. Are they also sensitive to temperature changes? Like, I know a lot of aquatic species, especially with urbanization and like channelization temperature can be a bit of a, a sensitive for them.

Catherine Febria (she/her/siya) 9:21

I think they are, and Lauren will know this better than me, but the lifecycle of the mussel tells us a lot about what they need so that if we talk about the lifecycle of the mussel for just a minute, while the mussels themselves live in the river bed, they release their babies into the water column. So you can imagine these are like lots of smaller GIA that get released into the water column, and they need to find a host species and attach onto their gills and conduct their whole lifecycle, mostly up and down the river. And so you can imagine. changes are maybe a cue or a trigger. Water flow changes, you know, how a mus decides when and where and who they want to attach to. So much of the things that are happening on land are affecting the way that a river kind of behaves. So it's, it is temperature that can change things, but predictably, as you go into these smaller rivers versus larger rivers, there's its own temperature regime. And then when you have, less canopy because of things like, taking down forests or, building cities and things, that will change the temperature regime. But along with that comes changes in the water flow and what's in it. So I wouldn't say it's, just temperature that might influence the muscle, but all of these things that are happening and at different parts of their lifecycle, knowing that it's not just about this one place where it lives, they sort of live and carry out their lifecycle throughout that whole river system.

Lauren (she/her) 10:45

I agree. There's definitely as they've evolved to live in these spec assemblages, they've also really evolved to live in all of these. Specific habitat. So like some of them, like a slower flow with a higher summer temperature. But some of them wanna stay in that higher flow cooler temp for the majority of the year. You know, so, and I know that I believe muscles, their most productive time is in the summer, like the peak summer. But of course, there's like thresholds to everything, right? So there might be that sweet spot where the temperature, the water is like 28 degrees in their loving life, but then it gets to like 32 and it's too warm, you know?

Meredith 11:22

Yeah, I guess that makes a lot of sense. Everything has a range. But we need to dive back more into the lifecycle of the snuff box. It's muscles have this fascinating reproductive strategy. Can you break this down bit more for us and then we'll get into the threats and continue that. But we can't blow past this, reproductive strategy.

Lauren (she/her) 11:46

So muscles in general at uni day especially have. Evolved, these like crazy, crazy ways of reproducing. And part of that is using a fish as a host, so they are parasitic. And there is a stage in the reproductive cycle where either they look for any fish or a very, very specific fish or in some cases a salamander to release their TIA onto. And these Tia will live on the gills of the fish or the salamander for a specific period of time and then drop off back into the river bed or the lake or the wetland or wherever. And the really, really interesting thing about snuff box is that they've evolved this very crazy strategy of developing almost a set of teeth and a very, very strong beak or hinge, I guess, their host is the log perch. And they have this little lure that kind of looks like a minnow that they'll display and draw the log perch over as soon as the log perch kind of rolls it's nose trying to get that minnow out, the snuff box will snap its jaws shut. And the log perch is one of the only species with a strong enough skull for muscle to perform this action on. So it'll hold this log perch in its grasp, release all of its its luidia onto it. And they'll attach onto the log perch and live on there forever long. They need to. It's very aggressive for being such a cute, tiny little creature. Yeah.

Meredith 13:07

Do the fish survive having all of these GIA in their gills or.

Lauren (she/her) 13:13

Yes. So, and there doesn't seem to be a lot of negative effects. Some fish will develop a type of resistance to the dorida over time if they've been infected more than once. But yeah, they seem to do all right. I mean, it's been going on for however many centuries or thousands of years.

Meredith 13:30

We keep calling them Gia. I'm picturing like sea monkey type things at this stage. Is that accurate?

Catherine Febria (she/her/siya) 13:36

Yeah, that sounds right. Little, that can just hang on and catch a ride.

Meredith 13:44

then

Lauren (she/her) 13:44

Yes. Yeah.

Meredith 13:45

been on the gills, do they drop off and grow their shell?

Lauren (she/her) 13:49

From what I've seen, when they attach, they have still kind of a, they already have that bivalve appearance. But then I'm sure over their time on the shell, they kind of become almost insisted on the guild. And then once they grow to a certain point and they drop off, I think their shell is intact at that point.

Meredith 14:04

That's so wild. I feel like I've seen maybe like a YouTube video of the

Catherine Febria (she/her/siya) 14:10

yeah, there's no shortage of places in YouTube where you could hang out and watch muscles and this the log

Lauren (she/her) 14:17

Yeah.

Meredith 14:17

please send

Catherine Febria (she/her/siya) 14:18

Interactions.

Meredith 14:18

favorite link or something, because even though this is a podcast, I would love to share that

Catherine Febria (she/her/siya) 14:22

Yes, will do.

Meredith 14:24

and so it's got,

Catherine Febria (she/her/siya) 14:27

And so clever. And smart. I mean, if you're a big muscle and you can't move and you have no head or legs, it's just such a clever system to, you know, your babies into the world and ride the river and find other places in the river to find a home. So it is, you know, it's pretty sophisticated if you think about it for an animal with no limbs or for an invertebrate.

Meredith 14:50

Yeah, they've gotta make do with what they've got. This species has a one-to-one relationship with their host. Is that one of the reasons they're under threat? Or why are snuffbox or even like freshwater mussels in decline?

Catherine Febria (she/her/siya) 15:05

Mussels broadly in rivers and in particular, the rivers that we have had the privilege to work on are under decline, has been a lot of things happening on the land and also things happening in the lake. So on the land we've, you know, if you imagine these were once either forested areas, the land conversion into cities and farms has led to the burial of some rivers, like complete just, you know, loss of their habitats. And changes in river flows. So runoff and nutrients and other things that might have not been there historically are now entering. Rivers in pretty high rates and intensities and more and more frequently. So it's sort of a multi-angle punch. And if you, if you think about it, not only is where, you know, when you think about sediment, it's gonna end up on the river bed, well that's just suffocating the homes of our muscles. And if they're doing water filtration and there's a lot of sediment, nut nutrients, their ability to filter water in relation to the amount coming from upstream, it, that's enough to knock out a community as well. And then muscles, you know, might, while they might get. out of their homes. They live in such dense assemblages with other invertebrates and they rely on fish. And so if it's not their habitat that's being affected, it's might be their host fish who are also species at risk themselves'cause their habitats are being destroyed or levels of pollutants in anything entering the water or they have their own thresholds. So in multiple ways the things that a mussel might need to live places where they live and who they live with, and who they depend on for their survival. All of those things are really now under intense pressures that we haven't seen before. the same time, we live in the Great Lakes Basin. So whenever we talk about mussels as a research team, most like the first question people ask, is this the bad muscle? Is this the. Qua Mus or the zebra muss, and we're like, no, these are, mussels that normally live here. They're very different. they don't overtake and become a mono species or mono community of just one. They're a diverse group that have their own personalities and habitat requirements. And so I think, you know, from, we haven't seen them coming into their rivers, but we know that the dispersal of invasive mussels from the Great Lakes have a tendency to move upstream too. So I think all of those things are happening in an ever-changing landscape and world.

Meredith 17:31

Yeah, and definitely something that we've talked about. We've had an episode on red side days and they are sensitive to sediment and pollution and all those things. But I think the muscle angle is like a little bit maybe different because, they're not as mobile as, say, fish, really have these kind of like, like you talked about, like beds in communities and they're more reliant on other species I feel like, than, you know, red side days. They need the terrestrial invertebrates., but they have a different reliance and relationship. And I think that's really important because I think people think, muscles are cleaning the water, they should be happy that there's more nutrients or things that are available. But really, like you said, there's a range and a threshold.

Catherine Febria (she/her/siya) 18:16

Yeah. And some of our partners sort of call them the canary and the coal mine, like understanding how certain mussels are doing. They don't all decline. They have different tolerances. They each, you know, in a species, a very species river where we have dozens and dozens of different types of muscles. They all have different tolerances to the different stressors. And maybe different dependencies on one versus a multiple type potential hosts. So I think, you know, they, knowing how they're doing might tell us a little bit about who, how the other, the fish and other animals species that they depend on are doing. It might tell us a little bit more about sort of other water quality parameters that we might be interested in. Nutrients and sediments, for example. So I do think that they tell us, like, like enjoying and appreciating them for who they are as these very incredible organisms is one thing. But in terms of what they can tell us about the overall health of a river, a watershed and a community, I think they can tell us a lot.

Meredith 19:14

And what sort of actions are being taken to the loss of our snuff box and freshwater muss.

Catherine Febria (she/her/siya) 19:23

I can start that. There's a lot that's being done and we can thank our local conservation authorities and local community partners. And federal agencies who together look at the different species at risk. So many of them are listed, including the snuff box as being, really threatened species at the kind of federal level and local community practitioners, conservation practitioners who are really on the ground trying to implement a lot of habitat stewardship projects. In addition to the monitoring of the health of these rivers, they're also implementing a lot of stewardship activities that include riparian, buffers, wetland creation, planting and fencing the riparian sections of a river to ensure that we're limiting the amount of water and nutrients and other pollutants entering the river. So I think there are a lot of these best management practices that are. Already on the ground and underway and have been so for years, if not decades. So we know that those actions are already happening, at least in the watersheds that we are working on. And sometimes it's just some basic science. Like baselining. A lot of the new surveys we're doing is just raising awareness our local landowners and community partners to just say, did you know that there are, you know, threatened species in this watershed? If when we look, we've been finding them. So number one is just awareness. Number two is actually being mindful of the connection that actions on the land have an impact on biodiversity in the water and the biodiversity in the water is actually incredibly important for a number of and, just essential kind of health and wellbeing of our watershed and society. So I think knowing those things are connected, the awareness piece is one I. Stewardship actions are second. And I think it really is thinking about the connectivity now of those actions. You know, thinking about knowing where species at risk are in a watershed and trying to either connect and concentrate those areas so we can have ecological corridors for those species to find. Other places in the watershed when we think about stewardship actions being kind of haphazard on the watershed based on who is interested in, they aren't necessarily where those animals might be located or if you restore one area, how would that species know to find those locations if there aren't any kind of ways to signal to them that, hey, this environment is being restored. And I think, you know, thinking about moving into the stream. A lot of the stewardship actions are actually on the land in the riparian zone, but very rarely in the stream itself. That's something that we're not seeing a lot of, but I think we might have to thinking about, you know, there's still a lot of sediment and degraded river habitats, so how can we actually ensure that those ecosystem restoration actions think about the river itself? So those are some things and just a lot of community outreach to do, raising the awareness, working a lot with youth, who live in these watersheds along with us, to know that these mus are here and that once you get to know them. Incredible stories to tell us and so much to teach us.

Lauren (she/her) 22:27

I think you know, especially with muscles, it's been kind of this learning approach of we can't just look at the species in this, in this case especially, it has to be a holistic approach. So you have to be looking ecosystem wide just because they are. They have so many strong connections within their ecosystem just because they can't move, right? So they rely on their fish, they rely on these specific flows, these specific temperatures, in these specific spots where they might live out their entire life, which can actually be very, very long. I believe they found a three ridge that they age to be almost 90 years old in the Syham River, which is a river in southwestern Ontario. Yeah. And besides that, I think there's just especially you know, as time progresses, more and more people learn about freshwater mussels and there's more and more really important research happening. So obviously there are cryptic taxa, you know, they're not swimming around, they don't have all these crazy behavioral characteristics. They're not like something that you can really catch. You have to like get down in the riverbed and dig for them. So therefore it's. It's hard to know exactly what their requirements are. And especially because, like Kat said, we find them in so many different types of environments, but the more research that's done and the more that we learn about them, we realize how much more complex they are than we realize. But we also have more information at our disposal for trying to conserve them.

Catherine Febria (she/her/siya) 23:50

Yeah, we often talk about how it's a steeper curve to get someone to care about a rock in a river that you never see versus like a polar bear or something fuzzy and cuddly and smiley. So awareness I think, is a huge thing that we often take for granted. I mean, we are biased. We love happens underwater. We're biased towards, you know, the unseen diversity that supports so much of life.

Lauren (she/her) 24:15

Mm-hmm.

Catherine Febria (she/her/siya) 24:16

is such a great. of advocate and poster muscle for all of them. And it's hard to pick just one. But they do have incredible stories to tell us and lots to teach us about how they've been able to survive and withstand and be so resilient to so many things we've done to their home and to the watershed that more people need to know.'cause once you know, your heart and mind has changed when you realize that they've been there the whole time.

Meredith 24:43

think that's, yeah, you almost covered like what's threatening them, but also like why we need to care these muscles you know, you said earlier there. They can act as canaries in the coal mine and also tell us a lot about what's going on our rivers. And I'd like to think that most people are aware of now that like we rely so much on our freshwater health like we need to be protecting our rivers if we want to be around like even just for selfish reasons. But before we head into the next question how do you age a muscle? Like how do we know we found a muscle that's 90 years old?

Lauren (she/her) 25:24

That's a great question for someone else, but I think what they're essentially doing is you do have to use a shell, you cut the shell, and I. Think that there is a way to count the specific ridges because there is a, like there's yearly growth ridges, just like there are rings of a tree. And by counting those, you can count. The age Don't come from the other muscle scientists that know better than me.

Meredith 25:48

And for muscles is there a growing season Like is it they go dormant during the winter or you said Yeah, what's their what's their, I don't know, life, like throughout the year.

Lauren (she/her) 26:03

So in the wintertime, I think they're burrowed usually quite deep into the sediment. They go into kind of a hibernation mode they last in that mode, until, the water gets a little bit warmer sometimes. We'll be out. I think we were out a couple weeks ago and we saw a couple of them out and about moving around in the stream and we're like, it is too chilly. What are you doing out here? So, but as spring starts, they start to un burrow from the sediment and they're performing more filtering. But then I think they're filtering really peaks in those really warm summer months, like August, when you're seeing a lot of more al outdoor production and some bacteria that they love to filter outta that water column. Yeah. And those warmer, warmer flows that they like.

Catherine Febria (she/her/siya) 26:44

Yeah. And even though we said they can't move, these animals do move quite a lot, relatively speaking. You know, they can go vertically into the sediment, 10 centimeters or more into the stream bed bottom. And even at the surface, you can see muscle trails. They're not ever straight. And so they, they are relatively mobile within, within the context of, their anatomy and the environment that they live in. But we know for other types of invertebrates we do in our, we research in our group, we know that benthic invertebrates around 12 degrees of water temperature. They start to kick into that reproductive lifestyle, it's warm enough for them to start, growth. And for muscles that require things like al, they're filtering things like algae, you know, for those processes to wake up in the spring and warm up. They are living their best lives in the summer. We like to also kind of muscle do our Muscle River work sort of in August when water temperatures are warm enough that you can be in the river all day, raccooning them. And as our, you know, their, our favorite way to find a mussel is to literally a technique called raccooning. So you can imagine that they, well, they, they do quiet their activities during the winter months and to do many, you know, animals that live in the river, but they, they come alive for sure in the summer when we, we like to see them.

Meredith 27:59

When you say Raccooning, I'm literally picturing just like hands, fingers,

Catherine Febria (she/her/siya) 28:04

Yeah.

Meredith 28:04

mud.

Catherine Febria (she/her/siya) 28:06

It is my favorite, most inclusive way to sample a river. We all enter the river, identify a certain area, and you literally pretend well actively become a raccoon where you are cing through the sediments, raising the sediments up to the surface so you can see and collect muscles. It's a game of rock versus muscle for a certain amount of time. So it's a time search where we all are searching for a certain amount of time or a quadrat a one by one meter square that we lay onto the riverbed so we can get a quantitative assessment of how many muscles live within that area. And yeah, those are really fun. You literally are a raccoon. Garden gloves knee pads, wetsuit, you can imagine. Very fun day. And it ended up being a wonderful way to do river work during the pandemic.'cause you have to be spaced out in the river. We wanna have each person raccooning a certain section of the river without overlapping with one another. And you turn your canoe into a lab bench and you can do your species identifications and measurements in the lab bench. Then we return the animals back to their habitat. It's a really non way of sampling. We might, we're a bit rude'cause we take them outta their homes for a minute to identify them, measure them, but putting them back in the river so they can continue on the rest of their lifecycle. So it is yeah, it's a really fun way to spend a day in the river.

Meredith 29:31

August and field work. Like I just, that sounds pretty ideal to me.

Catherine Febria (she/her/siya) 29:37

Yeah.

Meredith 29:38

And so you're talking about taking them of the river. I mean, obviously it's momentarily. They recover well, but I've heard like, because they are I mean they're mobile, but like you said, they're really contained to these specific areas that you know, during developments or construction works or bridge works or whatever it could be, people have tried translocations to varying degrees of success. Is that because we don't understand all the parameters they need. Or, or why aren't these translocations always successful or can be less successful?

Catherine Febria (she/her/siya) 30:20

That's a great question, Meredith, because that's exactly the topic of Lauren's PhD actually.

Lauren (she/her) 30:26

Yeah, of course. I feel so on the spot. But I think with these translocations mitigation translocations specifically, it's one of those things where we don't understand all of the habitat requirements of these individual muscle species. And that can be bio and abiotic, right? So it's like we're collecting this whole muscle assemblage or community and moving it upstream and adding it to another muscle community and not really understanding exactly why those muscles were living where they were in the first place. So I think from some of. The work that I've done so far, we're seeing that it's very site specific possibly species specific. And that there are effects on these communities over time especially on like the community composition over time from these different translocations. But I do believe it is just maybe a, an over assumption that they are maybe more resilient than they are and that we can all just collect these things that kind of look like rocks from this one area, move'em upstream and you know, they'll be fine. They're not getting crushed by a bulldozer or whatever without really considering flow requirements. Again, host fish. Exactly what kind of, you know, climates they were experiencing, maybe living under that bridge compared to somewhere really sunny upstream where we decide to, to. You know, displace them too. So I think there's a lot of factors. Yeah. A whole PhD worth. Yeah.

Catherine Febria (she/her/siya) 31:57

I mean, and that's what kind of got us into doing this project and working so closely with the union is our group really focuses on freshwater restoration. You know, how do we restore these ecosystems and a species that live there? was really clear that whenever there's a bridge reconstruction or any sort of change or activity on a river overlaps with the distribution of a species at risk, specifically the onic species at risks or fish or any other listed species. It, immediately invokes or is calls into, brings into conversation the Endangered Species Act and any sorts of provisions under that. So if that should happen, it triggers an automatic, you know, investigation or consideration of is a translocation required. So this practice of translocation muscles mussels in Canadian rivers has ha followed a standard procedure for maybe the last 15 years. It's called the Mackey Protocol and the sort of the guiding document for so much of our shared work in this space. And after moving these muscles from their homes quite comfortable under a bridge that's been there for a while or in a section of the river undisturbed, we are literally scooping up these mussel without a regard of. you know, how they were doing, they were probably just fine moving them upstream, as Lauren has described. And we were noticing there are a couple of things. Number one, there's no real assessment of where we're moving them to in terms of the river kitchen, the invertebrates that they're living there, maybe even the substrate that's there as sort of a visual inspection. people and well with best intentions are moving these animals. We were wondering, you know, are they all done the same way? And so we've had a really lovely opportunity to look at 15 years worth of translocation data. Really? Lauren driving that to ask that question. Are they doing okay? And what we're learning is not all of them are doing the same. The community overall, where if the MO ones that are moved and the ones that are kind of displaced are overall not doing, responding so well and we just really wanna understand, can we do this practice better, especially when these are already incredibly threatened species and hopefully improve and make recommendations to this practice. It is a really disruptive activity. So is there a way to make that practice kinder? We're hoping that science can be helpful in that sense.

Meredith 34:13

Yeah, I actually think that there's kind of a common theme on this podcast. Even when I was talking about wood poppies, they're doing translocations. They're just starting to learn the process. And on the surface, it's like, yeah, you could probably just move this flower from this forest and it looks like this forest, so let's put it there. But the soil microbes, like all these things, you know, take much into consideration. And then with captive breeding, they're like, oh, we'll just bring a male and a female into

Catherine Febria (she/her/siya) 34:43

Yeah.

Meredith 34:43

They'll

Catherine Febria (she/her/siya) 34:44

You know,

Meredith 34:44

We'll release the young

Catherine Febria (she/her/siya) 34:46

arranged marriage, it's fine.

Meredith 34:48

Years into the program, they're like, oh, we're figuring it out now.

Catherine Febria (she/her/siya) 34:52

Yeah. I think you're, you're hitting it. I think I. When we talk about the conservation of species and the restoration of these habitats, a lot of it is deeply relational, like these animals and plants live together since time immemorial. And we are disrupting those relationships thinking that they can just promptly And the science is so clear about this. You know, my favorite theory is this Field of Dreams hypothesis, which we've tested for river systems over and over again. If you build it, they do not come, unlike the Kevin Costner movie of the nineties, promptly just creating habitat and, you know, putting up a sign. You know, you can't simply create these ecosystems and assume that these animals would do well, that they can find their friends, that they can live out their lives as well as they did in their native ranges or habitats. And I think the science is just clear about that. So I, we often talk about how the. Mussel the snuff box or pick your favorite awkwardly named mussel. I do believe that them as a community are a gateway to whole watershed restoration because you have to think about they live with and what fish or salamander they depend on, well, what are their habitats and move upstream. And actually that means talking to people and that means organizing and aligning and coordinating activities. I think if we can center the uni on it's, and when we talk about freshwater restoration, we might have a better chance at getting it right'cause it is long-term generational changes that, that I think are required for any of our species at risk.

Meredith 36:28

Lauren, it sounds like you've got a lot of work ahead of you

Catherine Febria (she/her/siya) 36:32

Many PhDs.

Meredith 36:33

But I mean, it's great. It's really important work, and it's something that can help move a needle for a threatened species like that's. worthwhile. And we've talked about how protecting, you know, the snuff box and freshwater mussels, you're not just protecting that individual or even that community. You're really helping the whole river. And if other people are like, yeah, I, like you said, it's a gateway. They're like, I wanna help mussels. I wanna help the river that's next to me. How can people who are listening help.

Catherine Febria (she/her/siya) 37:08

Well I can start and Lauren, feel free to jump in, but we just spent weekend in the Syn Nature Reserve, and it is a conservation area stewarded and cared for by many people. That, and as well as nonprofit organization called Ontario Nature and Nature, Chatham Kent. It's a section of the Syn River, the East Branch. Edge that we, you know, one of our students in our group calls the supernova of mussels. That's like all of the species at risk are found in that reach. And it has been so lovely because it was a collection of, people who love nature, not even from this watershed that have, supported the work of non profits like Ontario Nature, knowledge keepers from Bong or WaPo Island First Nation, who shared their knowledge about the land and water and the field naturalists who shared, their information about birds. And, you know, us as a river team talking about how a leaf can become a bird and support the mess muscles and that these are all connected. so when you think about what we can do, I think everyone can do something, whether it is being more aware of their relationship to their watershed.'cause there are mussels in, in Canadian rivers. If you. Turnover a rock. There's invertebrates living there. And so I think number one, it is having that relationship, that direct personal relationship and responsibility to care for nature wherever you are, is the first thing. Knowing some of your favorite places. So the organizations, whether it be the Conservation Authority or a local friends of group or naturalist group and supporting their activities, you know, communicating to your different authorities, whether it's your city, your county your community, that this matters and that stewardship matters. There's a number of different projects, especially in Southwestern Ontario, funded under the Great Lakes Freshwater Ecosystem Initiative, where conservation authorities are on the ground doing lots of best management practice engagement and implementation of whether it be wetlands or riparian buffers. So if you have. farm field or something. If you want a wetland, there are these opportunities now over the next few years to really galvanize this effort. So that's if, you know, there's something that everyone can do. Just raising that kind of awareness. I think this is sort of our individual and collective mission to try and use science in our case, to connect with people. but yeah, maybe, maybe Lauren has other ideas too.

Lauren (she/her) 39:32

Yeah, I think, there is an app called the Lamb Counter App that's been created by some great people at Department of Fisheries and Oceans. And it's basically the application of citizen science to try and expand our knowledge of freshwater mussel distribution in Ontario. So basically, you can just take a picture of a mussel. It'll help you identify it, but it'll also document the sighting. So it just helps us with our, our. Knowledge of those muscles and what's living in our area. And then also it's like what Kat said, supporting your local conservation authority and being kind to them. I feel like they do so much thankless work and they're really the people who are doing the most to protect these species and these habitats. That, you know, as we all come to get to know them, we all love them and we all respect them. But I think it's just having that gateway and like, even by becoming involved with whatever your local conservation authority has going on, you get that exposure to these environments and you learn things about your, surrounding habitat that you're living in that gives you this newfound love for it.

Meredith 40:31

I love Clan Counter. That's a great name for an app.

Lauren (she/her) 40:35

Yes.

Catherine Febria (she/her/siya) 40:35

punny names.

Lauren (she/her) 40:36

Yeah.

Catherine Febria (she/her/siya) 40:37

Musclehead are so good with the names.

Meredith 40:39

So if I am walking down to a river, I a muscle, it's okay if I pick it up, take a couple photos and put it back.

Lauren (she/her) 40:50

No, it'll be fine. And the clam counter app, actually, I think I'm not getting paid. There's no promotion in this. But I think that there is a way they tell you exactly what angles of the muscle they want or they require to correctly identify it.

Meredith 41:02

I wouldn't know what features on a clam, like, or on a muscle to, to take to

Catherine Febria (she/her/siya) 41:08

Oh.

Meredith 41:08

So that would be, that's great that it's built into the app because I was talking to, you know, the Rusty Patch Bumblebee folks, and they're like, okay, you need to take pictures of this, this, and this. I'm like, oh, that's a lot to remember. So if it's in an, if it's in an app, like that's, that's awesome.

Catherine Febria (she/her/siya) 41:23

Yeah. Yeah, you definitely wanna get that sort of one plan view. The hinge also called its beak. So those are kind of the key features.

Lauren (she/her) 41:32

Yes.

Catherine Febria (she/her/siya) 41:32

that app is, yeah. Very helpful for anyone that wants to about,

Meredith 41:37

That's awesome. And it sounds like both of you still get out the field a decent amount. Do you have a favorite fun story from working with the snuffbox or, or working in your rivers?

Catherine Febria (she/her/siya) 41:50

We've had very moist, like if you just, once you start Muscle Egg in the day, I, for me, my favorite to do is that it is the best team building experience we go as groups. It is one of the of experiences when you're doing river work to, we've had multiple agencies and community organizations in the river with us. It's such a wonderful day to really be one with the river and, you know, just seeing our little yellow canoe turned into a lab bench, like no one's canoeing in it, but just, how we've transformed how we can work in the river together. It's just some of my happiest days are literally in the river with some of my favorite people. And, always, I think when you work with muscles, I'm always, well, for me, I'm always liking, I have a little bit of a complex because I'm like, we're not as fancy and colorful and fluffy as the bird team. We're like in the water. But time and time again, we've had, youth in the river with us every summer and they have come back and said that muscling was their favorite activity. that just gives me so much joy and hope. Lauren, what about you?

Lauren (she/her) 42:50

Well, no, I was gonna say there's nothing like that feeling of burning someone muscling for the first time and they realize that there's all of these living things that have been in front of'em the whole time and they just had no idea that they were there. But also like, I mean, most of my field stories are horror stories, but the number of times, like people have just like flooded their waiters for my work or like lost a cell phone for my work or like just the river can be sometimes very kind, but sometimes very unkind. And so I think it's just, it brings you to appreciate your field team way, way more in those situations.

Meredith 43:22

demanding some respect,

Lauren (she/her) 43:23

Yeah.

Meredith 43:24

me.

Lauren (she/her) 43:24

Remember where you are?

Catherine Febria (she/her/siya) 43:25

Yeah,

Lauren (she/her) 43:26

Yes.

Meredith 43:27

Well, do you guys have time for some quick rapid fire questions?

Catherine Febria (she/her/siya) 43:33

Sure.

Lauren (she/her) 43:33

Yes.

Meredith 43:34

Think is the most underrated or overlooked thing about the snuffbox

Lauren (she/her) 43:39

Oh, well, I think the fact that they're so selective that they've developed this whole jaw system just to snap onto their host fish is just so cool. It could never be appreciated enough.

Meredith 43:51

Yeah.

Lauren (she/her) 43:52

Yes.

Meredith 43:53

Evolution was probably not kind to some of those other fish.

Lauren (she/her) 43:56

No, no.

Meredith 43:58

What do you think is the biggest myth about freshwater muss?

Catherine Febria (she/her/siya) 44:03

That they're

Lauren (she/her) 44:03

I.

Catherine Febria (she/her/siya) 44:04

not any one species that lives in any one place. So and maybe it's the zebra mussel narrative that's really kind of shaped public understanding about this, but these are, you know, favorite rarest species live with other rare, diverse species and that they live all live together. It's one, big neighborhood.

Meredith 44:25

Are any of them edible?

Catherine Febria (she/her/siya) 44:27

You've asked people about this, You know. filtering. I wouldn't recommend it'cause they are filtering toxins and other things. But some people have memory of eating them with a lot of butter. I don't know. But I, I wouldn't necessarily, I think I know too much, but we, from time to time we'll hear people share stories and memories about eating them. How about you, Lauren? Have you gotten other stories from the river and

Lauren (she/her) 44:52

No, I mean, I guess it depends what you define as edible is basically what I've heard. But I've also it's a bystander's favorite question for our group.

Catherine Febria (she/her/siya) 45:01

Yeah. And I always counter and let them know. While we don't eat them, they are the only uni on it protected under the Fisheries Act, or recognized under the Fisheries Act because up until sort of the last century, we actively harvested mussels to create buttons. So when we think about them, in a fisheries context, we did actively harvest mussels, but it wasn't for eating, it was for creating really beautiful buttons.

Meredith 45:26

They do have incredible shells on the inside and outside,

Catherine Febria (she/her/siya) 45:30

Oh yeah. That's the surprise. The inside. When you open them up, like the colors that, I mean, we can just write them off like the, the pink heel splitter, they just have such be the coloring, the surprise of the biology inside is so beautiful. But yeah, they were actively harvested for buttons.

Meredith 45:47

That, that is a surprise. Do the snapbox or freshwater mussels in general have any hidden talents that you think people might not know about?

Lauren (she/her) 45:56

I feel like we've shared some of their hidden talents. It's like these crazy lures that they put out to attract these hose fish, but also they're not just filter feeders, they're like super powered filter feeders. I think there's some muscles that can filter up to 40 liters of water a day. That is really an impressive feat that a lot of people probably don't know about is how hard they're working.

Catherine Febria (she/her/siya) 46:18

They make it look so easy.

Lauren (she/her) 46:20

Yeah.

Meredith 46:20

They're doing more work than,

Lauren (she/her) 46:22

I.

Meredith 46:22

To help our water should so If freshwater mussels were to give humans a TED talk, what do you think they're saying?

Catherine Febria (she/her/siya) 46:31

I think look deeper, think deeper. Like if you look, you will find us. Like, I think they've been there the whole time. But what do you think Lauren?

Lauren (she/her) 46:41

Like live slow, surrounded by your friends.

Meredith 46:44

Oh, I

Catherine Febria (she/her/siya) 46:45

Yes.

Lauren (she/her) 46:46

There you go.

Meredith 46:47

A

Lauren (she/her) 46:47

Yeah.

Meredith 46:49

Is there anything that you've been really surprised about doing this work?

Lauren (she/her) 46:54

Just by how connected they are to everything. Just when you think you have kind of come to understand them. I feel like I learned something new about them and how they're contributing to another part of the ecosystem or another relationship that they have with another organism that they live with that just like, it makes them so, so impressive. Like, and it is part of the fact that they can't really move that much. It's required them to develop these really crazy, interconnected, you know, habitats.

Catherine Febria (she/her/siya) 47:26

I agree. Like I think there was not too long ago, we see more and more people realizing the importance of organisms like fungus. That they were kind of there all the time, underfoot connecting everything. I think it's the muscles turn soon enough where people realize that they were there the whole time. You know, just like when people are like, that's here in this river and this, they've been here the whole time. I'm like, yeah, for decades longer than you likely. So I think it is a really validating lesson to keep learning that these animals have been there the whole time. That they'll continue to do well. We need to support them. But also I just love, I mean, the thing about science and our kind of science, you can't take it so seriously when you're called a snuff box or a wardback or a pig toe and you know, a creeper and these are a rainbow. You know, just the kind that you can't a giant floater. So I just love the fact that it is, you know, these are incredibly, sophisticated animals. They make it look so simple and easy. And there's, you know, and they're also goofy in the way that they present. So it is like my life, you know, this idea of taking your work seriously, but not yourself. Just like, and that's kind of the life lesson that I love muscles reminding me of that they, can do really hard work and also be called a pimple badge or a awardee bag and a tear, Joe. So it's just, there's no shortage of conversations you can have in the river when you're working with these animals.

Meredith 48:51

What's the funniest or most unexpected reaction you've gotten from people when you tell them what you do for work?

Lauren (she/her) 48:57

I mean, I watch my family's eyes laze over when I try and tell them what I do for my research project. But I think it's, it's always surprising. Or I love hearing when people have childhood stories, like when you say, oh, there's muscles in here. And they were, they talk about when they were kids and they would walk around in the river and they would be shells that they would pick up or collect. But it's also just, the awe of them finding out that there are muscles that live in there or asking for the upteenth time if they can eat them, you know.

Catherine Febria (she/her/siya) 49:25

And I think they are really surprised when we bring out like the three ridge or like the giant when they see how big they are. And I'm like, yeah, no, these muscles are as big as your face. you know, just, and then when you pull it out of the river and they're like, oh my goodness, that wasn't a rock. So I think when we talk about the wonder and the surprise that comes when we bring people to muscle with us for the first time, it is just a lot of that, like their eyes, their minds and their hearts are now forever changed. They're like, oh, it's that big. Yeah, it does have three ridges. Or like, oh, look at that, and that is different from this other muscle. And they were living right beside this other guy. So I think the wonder that they are this diverse, they, yes, they are this big. Yes, they can also be quite small. And yes, they all live together and they've been there the whole time. You know, just sort of the layer, it's almost like layers of understanding that they deepen when they learn more and more about this animal or this river bed. And they are forever changed.

Meredith 50:16

Yeah, I'm not going to lie. Like you were to tell me like, oh, this is what we do, I'd be like, oh, I used to collect muscles in my lake when I

Catherine Febria (she/her/siya) 50:23

Yeah.

Meredith 50:25

I am not going to lie. I did not know a lot about muscles and my siblings and cousins and I were probably responsible. For a couple of their deaths because we're like, oh, let's put them in this, you know, and on.

Catherine Febria (she/her/siya) 50:39

Does it bounce? Yeah.

Meredith 50:40

Oh So

Catherine Febria (she/her/siya) 50:43

now we know,

Meredith 50:43

hopefully none of those were at risk,

Catherine Febria (she/her/siya) 50:45

but at least the awareness is there and it, you have a memory now. You know what I mean? I think it's been cool to see people like, oh yeah, they have been there. I just forgot about them.

Meredith 50:53

it was actually a really good lesson, and similar to what you're talking about, we took the same water from the lake and put it in this kitty pool, put the mussel in with the same sand, and they didn't do well. And so I think we were like,

Catherine Febria (she/her/siya) 51:06

Mm-hmm.

Meredith 51:07

Why aren't they, it's the same. Same. And I think that was the first

Catherine Febria (she/her/siya) 51:10

Mm-hmm.

Meredith 51:11

oh, habitat

Catherine Febria (she/her/siya) 51:12

mm-hmm.

Lauren (she/her) 51:12

I think I've read that paper. The late to bathtub experiment. Yes.

Meredith 51:18

And thank you guys so much for your time, but, so last question. Is there any successes or like stories of hope that are keeping you guys going right now?

Catherine Febria (she/her/siya) 51:29

I think working with people like Lauren gives me a lot of hope that the next generation of scientists and non-degree learners, like just people that we've met in the river, especially the next generation, are just so interested in learning more and thinking about what they can do to. Save their local river or learn about science I think a mass of who want to help and use science to help. you know, the more and more we learn this work together, only is fun, but you actually feel like it's making a difference when now some of the people who I've had the privilege of knowing since they were teenagers are now working in sciencey, rivery, muscly work, or, now working with these organizations that have supported us or you see a farmer who decided to. Do a wetland thanks to that conversation with us or a drain superintendent who you now are seeing kind of ask questions and think about making changes in their, line of work. So I think there's lots of little pockets of awesome it takes all of those little things. But yeah, so it is these little changes for me. Give me hope because I think that's what transformation is, especially when we're thinking about speaking risks, not just one thing, it's everybody doing something. What about you, Lauren?

Lauren (she/her) 52:48

In a similar way, it is like, right now we're all really getting into the start of the field season and I think watching a lot of the undergrads or younger students in the lab start to move into these positions where they're going to be running their own field seasons and they're really having to put these pieces together. It always brings me so much joy because they're so passionate about it and they're so excited and it kind of reminds you of that freshness of your first time going out in the field. And that brings me hope. But I think also, this may sound overly optimistic, but I think we are really approaching a turning point where a lot of people are starting to realize that we're not separate from nature. We're supposed to live with it. It's not that humans need to be removed from the landscape for these things to, prosper. It's just figuring out ways of living in harmony with these different habitats and ecosystems and respecting them. So I think I try and think to that as though, even though things are bad right now, I'm hoping that it's just like that darkness before the dawn where we find a new approach.

Catherine Febria (she/her/siya) 53:47

Yeah, we

Lauren (she/her) 53:48

Yeah.

Catherine Febria (she/her/siya) 53:49

really do have to work.

Lauren (she/her) 53:50

Yes, like the muscles.

Catherine Febria (she/her/siya) 53:52

Together.

Lauren (she/her) 53:53

We're all stuck in this river together.

Meredith 53:55

Yeah.

Lauren (she/her) 53:55

Yes.

Meredith 53:55

sticking in water filtration pumps into all of our streams when we've gotten rid of all the

Lauren (she/her) 54:00

No,

Catherine Febria (she/her/siya) 54:02

That's

Lauren (she/her) 54:02

exactly.

Catherine Febria (she/her/siya) 54:03

rivers move in a direction we need to move forward together.

Lauren (she/her) 54:06

Yeah.

Catherine Febria (she/her/siya) 54:06

lessons that, the river has caught us in, in those

Lauren (she/her) 54:12

yes.

Meredith 54:13

Thank you so much for your time, Lauren and Catherine. It was a lot of fun talking to you about muscles.

Lauren (she/her) 54:18

Oh, thank you so much.

Catherine Febria (she/her/siya) 54:21

Appreciate it.

Meredith 54:22

And that's a wrap on this week's episode with the Snuffbox and our guest, Catherine and Lauren, a huge thank you to both of them for sharing their passion and knowledge. I hope you enjoyed learning about freshwater mussels as much as I did. Okay. It's not really a fun fact about the snuff box per se, but I love how looking for muscles is called raccooning. The way Catherine and Lauren described their field work really made me question why I got up super early in the biest months of spring to study wetland birds when I could have been raccooning in the rivers for mussels in August. But if I did have to choose a fun fact from this episode. It would probably be that there was actually a fishery for mussels and it wasn't to eat them, but it was so that we could make buttons out of their beautiful shells, not something I would've thought of. And don't forget to check out our show notes for a link to a video on how the snuff box traps the log perch so it can release its larva into its skills. And while your browser is open, don't forget to subscribe and leave us a review. It helps rarefied reach even more people who care about protecting our planet's rare species. And as always, you can follow us on Instagram at rarefied pod and sign up for our newsletter on our website. Until next time, get out there and explore the wild, because every species has a story and every one of us can make a difference. I'm your host Meredith Meeker. Thank you for listening and happy trails.