Question: Isthere ever a lot of pollution in the rivers you go to and how does that

Karen answered on 6 Nov 2018:

Thanks this is a great question  The rivers I work are thought to be some of the cleanest rivers in Ireland! That’s why the freshwater pearl mussel likes them, it filters up to 50 litres of water a day so it wants that water to be clean and free of chemicals. Unfortunately, my studies are showing that even in these “clean rivers” there is a lot of pollution than we would like (this is including chemicals that farmers spread to control their fields, and soil that washes into the river). One of the biggest ways in which soil affects the mussels is that it clogs up the river-bed that they live in. Imagine if you had a big jug of water and you put some nice big stones in, there’s clean water in between the stones in the jug? This is like a riverbed, and the baby mussels live in the nice clear gaps between the stones where they are protected from the flowing water. But if you imagine now putting a load of sand into your jug, the sand fills up this nice clear spaces. When this happens, the young mussels can’t get enough oxygen and they die off. This is partly why we think that the mussel is dying off all across Europe. Things that cause more soil to go into the river bed include digging up fields, creating roads and planting forestry, anything that uncovers the soil and exposes it to rain. The good news is that my workmates are working with farmers and foresters to figure out how we can use our land better and protect the freshwater pearl mussel 