Amy’s project aims to understand the nutritional resources utilized by freshwater mussels in streams and rivers. Freswater mussels are filter feeders and primarily catch suspended seston in the water column for ingestion. Not only do they sort their food resources with their gill structure but after ingestion they can expell food undigested making it difficult to discern what in the water column they are assimilating into their tissue. With the help of multi-isotopic modeling, Amy hopes to tease apart what food resources in the river are important to growth and survival of freshwater mussels.
