Species Diversity and Conservation of Freshwater Mussels in Poyang Watershed

Freshwater mollusks are Mollusca, including gastropods and mussels, which are large benthic fauna. They play significant roles in freshwater ecosystems as a result of their dominant biomass and density among benthos. The middle-lower Yangtze area has a unique shallow lake groups in the world, which is the distribution center of the East Asian mussels. Over the past few decades, the extreme anthropogenic interference in these lakes, such as water pollution, dredging, destructive fishing, hydraulic engineering, which led to destruction and loss of aquatic habitats, and resulted in a rapid decline in species quantity and population density of molluscs species. And many species are endangered or extinct. There are 26 species of mussels under threatened in the middle-lower Yangtze area, accounting for 38% of the total recorded species. The largest Chinese freshwater lake, Poyang Lake, and its watershed have abundant freshwater molluscs species. We tried to initiate conservation activities for protecting freshwater molluscs resources under anthropogenic interferences, and corresponding strategies were discussed.