Norteamerika, we have over 300 species, making us the most diverse continent of freshwater mussels. In addition to that, they're considered ecosystem engineers, and similar to other filter feeding bivalves, they can alter their environments for the better and positively affect their ecosystems and everything else that lives within the ecosystem. So filter feeding is an interesting process by which mussels draw down water and pass the water over their specialized gills. As these particles are trapped on these sieve-like gills, the water is continually passed, the particles are retained by the muscle, and then they'll go into other digestive parts where they ultimately can digest and get nourishment from these particles, and the water that's ejected from the muscle is then clear. So they're filtering water and they're clearing the water, making light penetration possible, and so things like submerged aquatic vegetation can grow. They're excreting all their feces to the bottom, allowing for fertilization, for other organisms to eat. They're providing food-imensional structure for other fish and invertebrates to hide and kind of live within. They're also important in terms of clean water. These that have no mussels tend to be darker, more turbid, the water clarity isn't as great as those areas with mussels. It's remarkable when you are snorkeling and you go through an area that does not have mussels, your visibility may be two or three inches in front of your face, and when you happen to go over a bed of mussels, differences so stark that you can now see almost a foot or two feet in front of your face just because of that muscle bed filtering the water and filtering out those particles. Just by them existing in that ecosystem, the water clarity has increased, the water quality has increased. There's more diversity, and the ecosystem as a whole is healthier with these mussels in play. And so they're the glue that holds all these different pieces together. Without mussels, the areas simply aren't as diverse with other organisms, and quite frankly it would be less of an interesting place. Overall, by this process of mussels simply filtering water to meet their energetic demands in order to eat and survive, we're left with cleaner water.