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ORIGINAL PAPER
Calcium chloride pollution mitigates the negative effects
of an invasive clam
Kayla D. Coldsnow .William D. Hintz .Matthew S. Schuler .
Aaron B. Stoler .Rick A. Relyea
Received: 20 December 2019 / Accepted: 19 December 2020 / Published online: 2 January 2021
ÓThis is a U.S. government work and not under copyright protection in the U.S.; foreign copyright protection may apply 2021
Abstract Invasive bivalves can drastically alter
freshwater ecosystems and affect ecosystem services,
but they can be influenced by external factors includ-
ing calcium concentrations. When a common road
salt, calcium chloride (CaCl
2
), enters freshwater
ecosystems, it may be toxic to organisms or facilitate
bivalves by serving as a calcium source. Therefore,
CaCl
2
could benefit invasive mollusks tolerant to
chloride that require calcium to grow. We used
mesocosms to investigate the impacts of CaCl
2
(35–187 mg Ca
2?
L
-1
) and invasive bivalves (Asian
clams, Corbicula fluminea; zebra mussels, Dreissena
polymorpha) on a native lake food web. We hypoth-
esized that invasive bivalves facilitate benthic algae
because they reduce phytoplankton and excrete waste.
These changes in primary producers would subse-
quently impact consumers. We also hypothesized that
low to moderate CaCl
2
concentrations promote the
survival, growth, and reproduction of native and
invasive mollusks, while causing few toxic effects. If
so, we hypothesized that invaded communities
exposed to CaCl
2
experience stronger impacts from
the invasive bivalves. We found that invasive bivalves
Supplementary Information The online version contains
supplementary material available at https://doi.org/10.1007/
s10530-020-02443-x.
K. D. Coldsnow (&)W. D. Hintz
M. S. Schuler A. B. Stoler R. A. Relyea
Department of Biological Sciences, Darrin Fresh Water
Institute, Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute, 110 8th St.,
Troy, NY 12180, USA
e-mail: kaylacoldsnow@gmail.com
Present Address:
K. D. Coldsnow
Office of Pesticide Programs, Health Effects Division,
U.S. Environmental Protection Agency,
Research Triangle Park, NC, USA
Present Address:
W. D. Hintz
Department of Environmental Sciences and Lake Erie
Center, University of Toledo, Oregon,
OH, USA
Present Address:
M. S. Schuler
Department of Biology, Montclair State University,
Montclair, NJ, USA
Present Address:
A. B. Stoler
School of Natural Sciences and Mathematics, Stockton
University, Galloway, NJ, USA
123
Biol Invasions (2021) 23:1349–1366
https://doi.org/10.1007/s10530-020-02443-x(0123456789().,-volV)(0123456789().,-volV)
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