Effectiveness of Electric Barriers in Preventing Spread of Invasive Invertebrates Apocorophium lacustre and Procambarus clarkii

The Chicago Area Waterway System (CAWS) connects the Mississippi River and Great Lakes Basins. An electric barrier system in the CAWS aims to deter the spread of bighead and silver carp. The barrier is not designed, nor has it been tested, for other invasive species including the amphipod Apocorophium lacustre (scud) and the crayfish Procambarus clarkii (red swamp crayfish). We built a lab-scale electric barrier to mimic the barrier in the CAWS and studied the effects of the electric field on scud and red swamp crayfish to investigate the efficacy of the barrier in deterring these species

Order Parameter and Director Angle to Evaluate Electric Barriers

Electric barriers are currently located in the Chicago Area Waterway System (CAWS) to prevent invasive Asian carp from entering Lake Michigan. However, Asian carp are not the only invasive species that may enter Lake Michigan through the CAWS. Smaller invasive invertebrates are also potentially very harmful to the lake’s ecosystem. This research focuses on how the conditions of the electric barrier affect other invasive species present in the Mississippi River Basin nearing the CAWs