Geukensia demissa

Geukensia demissa

Geographic Range

The ribbed mussel is native to the Atlantic coast of North America, from the southern Gulf of St. Lawrence, Canada to northeastern Florida and along the Gulf of Mexico from Florida to Yucatan. In the mid eighteen eighties the ribbed mussel was introduced to San Francisco Bay, California, apparently by accident, included with live oysters shipped by trans-continental rail for cultivation in the Bay. Since then it has been found in other locations on the Pacific coast, from Alamitos Bay south to Anaheim Bay, Newport Bay, Bolsa Chica Lagoon and Estero de Punta Banda, Baja California Norte, Mexico. The locations may have been sites of unrecorded oyster transplants, or the mussels may have arrived after attaching to hulls or other mobile objects.

Regions: Atlantic ocean - native, pacific - introduced

Habitat

The larvae of ribbed mussels settle on subtidal oyster reefs, in intertidal salt marshes and on man-made structures in these habitats. Sometimes they attach to one another in aggregations or to clumps of hollow grass stems ( Spartina alterniflora ) in low marshes. They are most abundant at the lowest shore levels within salt marshes and occur in small numbers in the high marsh zone above the average high water mark.

These mussels can tolerate water temperatures up to one hundred thirty-three degrees Fahrenheit and a wide range of salinities, from near fresh water up to seventy parts per thousand, twice the concentration of seawater.

Habitat: saltwater Aquatic biomes: benthic, reef, coastal, brackish water Wetlands: marsh Other habitat features: intertidal or littoral