Mississippi River Status Report (excerpt)

'The declines in key native species across many trophic levels signal a deterioration in the health of this riverine ecosystem. The Mississippi River ecosystem is often heralded as a multiple-use resource, and human use of the river and its floodplain for various purposes is expected to increase while inputs of sediment, nutrients, and potentially harmful chemicals from the watershed continue. Clearly, the greatest challenge on the Mississippi and other large rivers is to maintain ecological integrity while sustaining multiple human uses of the ecosystem.

'Evidence is mounting that the cumulative effects of human activities have already exceeded the ecosystem's assimilative capacity, The abundances of many key native organisms, including submersed plants, native pearly mussels, fingernail clams, certain fishes, migratory waterfowl, colonial water birds, songbirds, and mink, have decreased along substantial reaches of the river in recent years or decades. The degradation of the Mississippi River delta represents a severe, nationally significant loss of wetland resources. Sediment deficiency is aiding in habitat destruction in Louisiana's coastal zone while, ironically, sediment deposition is threatening to destroy aquatic habitats in the impounded Upper Mississippi River.

'Abundances of undesirable non-indigenous organisms in the river have increased along with these other problems..Recent declines of benthic invertebrates and submersed aquatic plants constitute a partial, yet significant, collapse in the food web supporting certain key fish and wildlife species...The riverine ecosystem of the Mississippi has undergone many changes. Most of the natural changes have occurred gradually over hundreds or thousands of years, whereas human-induced changes have occurred rapidly and recently. Several factors have apparently contributed to the recent declines in the river's flora and fauna, including habitat loss and degradation, point and non-point pollution, toxic substances, commercial and recreational navigation, deterioration of water quality during drought periods, reduced availability of key plant and invertebrate food resources, and invasions of non-indigenous species..."

Source: Wiener, J.G., C.R. Fremling, C.E. Korschgen, K.P. Kenow, E.M. Kirsch, S.J. Rogers, Y. Yin and J.S. Sauer. 1998. Mississippi River. In: M.J. Mac, P.A. Opler, C.E. Puckett Haeker & P.D. Doran, editors, Status and Trends of the Nation's Biological Resources, Vol. 1. U.S. Geological Survey Reston, VA. pp.

Single copies of the entire publication are available free of charge froth: Kathy Mannstedt, Librarian, USGS-UMESC, 2630 Fanta Reed Rd., La Crosse, WI 54603, (608) 781-6215