Data for refining copper concentrations using the Biotic Ligand Model to maximize zebra mussel control while minimizing non-target effects ...

Copper in various forms can be toxic to aquatic organisms at high concentrations and has been used as a pesticide in lake management since the early 1900s. Managers have recently extended this use to control aquatic invasive species, including zebra mussels (Dreissena polymorpha). Because copper toxicity changes with changing concentrations of water chemistry parameters (e.g., pH, temperature, and other cations such as Ca2+ and Mg2+), using the same copper concentration to target the same species in two different waterbodies could have different outcomes. However, past zebra mussel control projects have selected copper concentrations irrespective of water chemistry differences. We demonstrate, in a two-part study, how measuring water chemistry parameters and using the Biotic Ligand Model (BLM) can help predict a site-specific copper concentration that will kill zebra mussels while minimizing effects on non-target species. We first tested the application of the BLM for predicting the effects of a copper ... : See readme.txt file for details. ...