Southeastern Fishes Council
SFC Abstracts
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Use of Historic Freshwater Mussel Data in the Management of Aquatic Resources of the Apalachicola River Basin
NOEL F. OCAMPO, JAYNE BRIM-BOX, JAMES D. WILLIAMS, and RICARDO C. LATTIMORE
Southeastern Biological Science Center, National Biological Service, Gainesville, FL 32606
North America, north of Mexico, harbors the greatest freshwater mussel biodiversity in the world, and the southeastern United States has more freshwater mussel species than any other region of the country. However, results of a recent National Biological Service (NBS) freshwater mussel survey of a large drainage basin in the southeastern U.S. suggest a very imperiled fauna. Unfortunately, little is known about the biology and ecology of freshwater mussels. Even less is known about how landscape changes affect them. Because of this tremendous need for landscape-scale information, we conducted computer-based spatial analyses (using ARC/INFO GIS) of the data collected during the NBS freshwater mussel survey of the Apalachicola-Chattahoochee Flint (ACF) basin. These data include more than 9,000 records from collections made from 1991-1993 and more than 2,000 historic records obtained from museum collections, literature records, and technical reports.
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