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In 2013, the Yund Lab based at the Downeast Institute, in collaboration with the Xue Lab at the University of Maine, the Etter Lab and the Hannigan Lab (both out of the University of Massachusetts, Boston) began a four-year, National Science Foundation-funded project to study the population dynamics of blue mussels (Mytilus edulis) in Downeast Maine. The Xue Lab is creating a model that predicts, based on ocean currents, where mussel larvae released from known beds will end up settling to become new adults. One prediction, based on known oceanography of the Gulf of Maine and the Eastern Maine Coastal Current, is that the northeastern populations are seeded mostly from up-shelf sources, whereas southwestern populations have a lot of local retention.
Image credit: Skylar Bayer/Downeast Institute
