Freshwater Mussels, Ecosystem Services, and Clean Water Regulation in Minnesota: Formulating an Effective Conservation Strategy

Freshwater mussels are threatened with extirpation in North America. They a sentinel species for ecosystem function and contribute towards many services. As require clean water to survive, since conserving services is implicit the federal Clean Water Act, incorporating mussel conservation into state policies could serve multiple goals. In this paper we conduct comprehensive critical review of three topics related freshwater mussels: their contribution services, links quality, threats survival from pollutants extent protection available regulation. so doing, identify gaps between quality requirements provided by current regulation help inform goals Minnesota. We find be generally sensitive wide variety pollutants, particularly nutrients such as total nitrogen phosphorus major ions chloride. addition, that standards may not sufficiently protective mussels. formulate framework determining an effective strategy Minnesota based on ecological economic criteria ensure adequate at reasonable cost.