{"id":25210,"date":"2024-07-21T09:26:59","date_gmt":"2024-07-21T03:56:59","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/vajiramandravi.com\/current-affairs\/?p=25210"},"modified":"2025-04-07T16:17:33","modified_gmt":"2025-04-07T10:47:33","slug":"zebra-mussel","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/vajiramandravi.com\/current-affairs\/zebra-mussel\/","title":{"rendered":"What is Zebra Mussel?"},"content":{"rendered":"<h2><strong>About Zebra Mussel:<\/strong><\/h2>\n<ul>\n<li>Zebra mussels are an <strong>invasive, fingernail-sized mollusk.<\/strong><\/li>\n<li>Scientific Name: Dreissena polymorpha<\/li>\n<li><strong>Distribution<\/strong>:\n<ul>\n<li>They are <strong>native to the Caspian and Black Seas, south of Russia and Ukraine<\/strong>.<\/li>\n<li>They <strong>entered the Great Lakes of North America<\/strong> in the late 1980s through ballast water discharged from ships.<\/li>\n<li>Since then, they have <strong>spread through much of eastern Canada and<\/strong> the <strong>United States.<\/strong><\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<\/li>\n<li><strong>Habitat<\/strong>: They <strong>live underwater<\/strong>, <strong>attached to natural and manmade substrates<\/strong> such as rocks, wood, plants, native mussels, pipes, docks, boat lifts, swim rafts, moored watercraft, and other debris.\u00a0<\/li>\n<li>They are easy to identify, with a <strong>distinct, flat-bottomed \u2018D\u2019 shape to their shells <\/strong>that allows them to sit flat against a solid surface, and <strong>black, zigzag stripes against a cream background<\/strong> that earned them their name.<\/li>\n<li>They grow around two inches long at most, and are <strong>microscopic in their larval stage<\/strong>, which is <strong>known as a \u201cveliger.<\/strong>\u201d<\/li>\n<li>They are <strong>short-lived<\/strong> (between two and five years), and begin reproducing at two years of age.<\/li>\n<li><strong>Impacts<\/strong>:\n<ul>\n<li>They are <strong>filter feeders<\/strong> that attach themselves to virtually any surface.<\/li>\n<li>They <strong>breed very quickly<\/strong>, as <strong>females<\/strong> can <strong>release up to one million eggs<\/strong> each breeding season.<\/li>\n<li>They disrupt food webs by <strong>wiping out phytoplankton.<\/strong><\/li>\n<li>Zebra Mussels are especially <strong>harmful for native mussels<\/strong>, many of which are species at risk. They <strong>outcompete these species for food<\/strong> and will <strong>attach themselves to native mussels<\/strong>, suffocating them.<\/li>\n<li>Their <strong>massive clustering on water-intake valves and pipes<\/strong>, <strong>bridge<\/strong> abutments, and other <strong>structures<\/strong> can cause severe <strong>commercial damage.\u00a0<\/strong><\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<hr \/>\n<h3><strong>Q1<\/strong>: What are Phytoplankton?<\/h3>\n<p>Phytoplankton are microscopic, single-celled organisms that live in water and perform photosynthesis. They are a key part of ocean and freshwater ecosystems.<\/p>\n<p><strong>Source: <\/strong><a href=\"https:\/\/phys.org\/news\/2024-07-invasive-species-colorado-river-capable.html\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\"><u>Invasive species discovered in Colorado River is capable of wiping out ecosystems, causing costly damage<\/u><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Zebra mussels are an invasive, fingernail-sized mollusk.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":5,"featured_media":25211,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[],"class_list":{"0":"post-25210","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-upsc-prelims-current-affairs","8":"no-featured-image-padding"},"acf":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/vajiramandravi.com\/current-affairs\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/25210","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/vajiramandravi.com\/current-affairs\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/vajiramandravi.com\/current-affairs\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/vajiramandravi.com\/current-affairs\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/5"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/vajiramandravi.com\/current-affairs\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=25210"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/vajiramandravi.com\/current-affairs\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/25210\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/vajiramandravi.com\/current-affairs\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/25211"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/vajiramandravi.com\/current-affairs\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=25210"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/vajiramandravi.com\/current-affairs\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=25210"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/vajiramandravi.com\/current-affairs\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=25210"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}