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	Podcast:		Local Features by WXPR
	Episode:		Eagles and Loons Brought Down by a Familiar Villain
	Category:		Government & Organizations
	Duration:		00:05:23
	Publish Date:		2021-06-08 10:20:20
	Description:		Here is an old story and a new story. Unfortunately, both involve the death of some of our favorite birds because of complications resulting from aquatic invasive species. Maybe you have heard about loons dying in Lake Michigan due to a tangled story about the lake’s food web. Lake Michigan has been hugely taken over by quagga mussels, a bivalve that by now covers almost the entire floor of Lake Michigan – nearly shore to shore. Like zebra mussels, the quaggas filter water, consuming all the phytoplankton, or floating algae out of the water. This clears up the water, so that light can penetrate deep into the lake. The quaggas release quite a bit of poop and so the very bottom of the lake is rich in nutrients. This encourages a bloom of Cladophora, an alga that likes to live on hard substrates like rocks (or quagga mussels) at the bottom of lakes. After the Cladophora dies, it uses up all the oxygen as it decomposes. In the oxygen-deprived environment, certain bacteria go to town,
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