I recently learned about a similar use of animals for assisting humans:
In about 1915, he tried a more natural approach to control the street lighting in Brightwater – chicken power. They didn't have time switches in those days, so he connected a switch to the perches in his chicken house. When the chickens started to roost at night the weight would turn the lighting on and in the morning when they got down off their perches, the spring switch would turn the generator and lighting off.
I believe mussels are now (2025) protecting more cities.
What is cool about Warsaw is the TAWARA-RTM (TAp WAter RAdioactivity Real Time Monitor.
"Warsaw as the first city in the world is protected by a comprehensive system that is capable to monitor in real-time radioactivity of municipal water and by an innovative spectroscopy system capable to identify any detected contaminants"
It's quite a creative approach. I have a question about it, though, as the person whose expertise is far from biology: how much time does it take for the species to adapt / evolve under the new reality?
For example, the city I live in has access to the sea. Which means that there are plenty of seagulls and another type of bird that looks similar but has a slightly larger size (not sure about its name). However, I can observe that many of them are searching for food not in the sea, but rather in the trash bins quite far from the sea, in front of McDonald's and other fast food places, where they can steal the food from the hand of the person leaving the building.
This gives me a hint that their behavior changed quite a lot due to the new conditions they live in. Is the same possible with the mussels that the "mussels are well known for clamping their shells shut when water quality is poor" fact might change within a short time? Or does it take generations to evolve like that?
You seem to be conflating evolution with learning. Seagulls didn't evolve to steal from trashcans, they learned to.
As for the main point of your question: the clams are replaced every so often, so they won't end up getting used to the city water and stop serving as a marker.
A weird approach to bioaccumulation which gets worse the higher in trophic level you go. Things like clams and sardines have the lowest levels of mercury etc. Swordfish and big tuna the worst.
I recently learned about a similar use of animals for assisting humans:
In about 1915, he tried a more natural approach to control the street lighting in Brightwater – chicken power. They didn't have time switches in those days, so he connected a switch to the perches in his chicken house. When the chickens started to roost at night the weight would turn the lighting on and in the morning when they got down off their perches, the spring switch would turn the generator and lighting off.
Via: https://www.theprow.org.nz/people/robert-ellis/
Some designs for nuclear bombs included live chickens which would produce enough heat to keep the electronics active:
http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/uk/3588465.stm
Thinking about it, nearly everything about computing is fundamentally about how to translate between analog and digital.
That's not new, and it isn't even the only city doing this, Warsaw has been doing it for a long time now: https://www.atlasobscura.com/articles/wild-life-excerpt-wate...
Can confirm, I live in a much smaller city and we do have a water treatment and monitoring plant that does the same.
Covered nicely by Tom Scott some time ago: https://youtu.be/i0RkEs3Xwf0
Weirdly enough that's about a completely different water treatment plant in a different part of the country.
Several Polish cities got that systems. It may sound unusual, but it is pragmatic system.
Poland during cold war was suppose to be battleground and protecting water supply is hard. Many traditional systems have some gaps.
I believe mussels are now (2025) protecting more cities.
What is cool about Warsaw is the TAWARA-RTM (TAp WAter RAdioactivity Real Time Monitor.
"Warsaw as the first city in the world is protected by a comprehensive system that is capable to monitor in real-time radioactivity of municipal water and by an innovative spectroscopy system capable to identify any detected contaminants"
https://www.ncbj.gov.pl/en/aktualnosci/state-art-system-moni...
Interesting and surprising, to see that they have English versions online.
It's quite a creative approach. I have a question about it, though, as the person whose expertise is far from biology: how much time does it take for the species to adapt / evolve under the new reality?
For example, the city I live in has access to the sea. Which means that there are plenty of seagulls and another type of bird that looks similar but has a slightly larger size (not sure about its name). However, I can observe that many of them are searching for food not in the sea, but rather in the trash bins quite far from the sea, in front of McDonald's and other fast food places, where they can steal the food from the hand of the person leaving the building.
This gives me a hint that their behavior changed quite a lot due to the new conditions they live in. Is the same possible with the mussels that the "mussels are well known for clamping their shells shut when water quality is poor" fact might change within a short time? Or does it take generations to evolve like that?
You seem to be conflating evolution with learning. Seagulls didn't evolve to steal from trashcans, they learned to.
As for the main point of your question: the clams are replaced every so often, so they won't end up getting used to the city water and stop serving as a marker.
Got it, learning is something that can be acquired relatively quickly, while evolving needs generations. Thanks for the explanation.
"forces of nature in the service of man" - classic polish comedy ;)
(2020)
Similarly, from 2019, Check Out These Mussels: Minneapolis Using Mollusks To Monitor Water Quality:
https://www.cbsnews.com/minnesota/news/mussels-helping-monit...
shell scripting taken to a new level
Even the most ambitious software systems often are stitched by a shell scripts. It is nice to learn that it is also the for water supply.
Yes, it's common to pipe through a shell.
Yet it’s always cool to see nature and tech blending like this.
Used to be good friends with a polish girl whose father worked on this. I was amazed but she really considered it no big deal.
The same is done for detecting water quality in de Scheldt river in Belgium and the Netherlands.
The Dutch do it quite some time as well.
Video (in Dutch, but intersting to see)
https://www.rtvnoord.nl/video/863704/mosselmonitor-gaat-gron...
What happens if pollutants build up slowly, rather than in a sudden spike that causes the mussels to close?
Then they can be detected by slower and more precise methods like periodically analyzing the samples in a traditional lab.
They do a very similar thing in the Netherlands by monitoring water flea populations.
I knew a veterinarian who never ate anything like mussels.
Asked why, he said "I know what they eat."
A weird approach to bioaccumulation which gets worse the higher in trophic level you go. Things like clams and sardines have the lowest levels of mercury etc. Swordfish and big tuna the worst.
Mussels are basically living water filters