Book: Immersion The Science and Mystery of Freshwater Mussels

April 15, 2019 12:57 AM - by Abbie Gascho Landis

A beautiful (portable) book on a less-seen but vital part of our world. I read this when I was starting a freshwater project a while back as it helped me into an area I knew little of. If you're concerned about Earth; a geologist, zoologist, ecologist or simply want the gist of how part of nature works this is a great place to start. It's one of the most readable pieces of nature writing I've seen in years. Also has a helpful bibliography.

These numerous and diverse bivalves are simply amazing and if we would just look after their habitat they could do so much to look after ours - just one tidbit from Immersion is that many mussels can filter out sediments and nutrient below 20µm. Our best stormwater filters cannot yet do that - own blog link

'Immersion' is as much a reference to the authors' experience, and her approach to the watery habitat, as it is to the way mussel-thinking can expand outward to our world.

It's amazing how much these guys filter, more than a litre of water an hour! "dense mussel populations can process the whole volume of a shallow lake in a matter of days" NZ Science blog

and with thanks to Homo neanderthalensis for starting a series on science, nature and gardens in Fanfare

posted by unearthed