During the first eight weeks of this summer, I conducted some interesting research on interactions between native and invasive crayfish. The PRISM program allows Longwood faculty and students to conduct original research in STEM fields. My lab was so fortunate to recruit two Longwood students dedicated for research, James Wilson and Patty Hale. Over the 8-week period we surveyed many local water bodies for crayfish, conducted laboratory microcosm experiments and field mesocosm experiments to understand how native and invasive crayfish interact with each other. The most interesting find is that invasive species impact is not uniform- the impact is determined by the specific crayfish species interacting with each other. One invasive species may truly harm the native species, but another invasive species may not. Stay tuned for more information on experimental results.
We have collected one of our invasive crayfish species, red swamp crayfish from Guion Pond at Sweet Brier College. From left James Wilson, Patty Hale and Johnny Leder.