zebra glass

invasion

M. Banadaki

Policy

The first law limiting the introduction of non-native species in the United States was passed in 1900. The Lacey Act focused primarily on trade in illegal wildlife, to curb rampant and indiscriminate commercial hunting and the interstate sale of poached game. It prohibited the intentional introduction of fruit bats, mongoose, meerkats, starlings, and English sparrows. Other vertebrates, mussels, and crabs that are “injurious to human beings, to the interests of agriculture, horticulture, forestry, or to wildlife.” [4] Plants were added in an amendment in 2008.

In 1990, the US Congress passed the Nonindigenous Aquatic Nuisance Prevention and Control Act. This law focused on unintentional, but preventable, introductions. It was largely a response to the invasion of zebra mussels in the Great Lakes and focused on controlling species spread through ballast water. In 1996, the law was expanded and renamed the National Invasive Species Act. The law has been valuable, but had several shortcomings, especially in its failure to regulate other vectors such as aquaculture and the pet trade. NISA expired in 2002, but aquatic nuisance species continue to be regulated by the 1990 law. [5]

Aliens & Invaders

The Invasive Species Specialist Group describes the relationship between alien species and invasive species as: “In the process of transitioning from an alien species into an invasive species, the alien species establishes a self-reproduction group, which thrives and enters an expansion period of exponential growth within the region. This results in the invasive species building a permanent place within the unoriginal ecosystem.” [1]

If a non-original species begins to harm the inhabitants of their new environment, we label them as “invasive.” [2]

Though the differentiation between “alien” and “invasive” is helpful in describing the potential impact an introduced species may have on its new ecosystem, the labels’ efficacy as accurate descriptor of the potentially manageable relationship between the introduced species and its ecosystem and as language that effectively mediates our participation in the imbalance created is questionable. This is further complicated by the fact that “Once non-native species are established in an ecosystem they are rarely able to be removed.” [3]

Due to asian carp’s negative reputation as an invasive species, steps have been taken by former Illinois Lieutenant Governor Evelyn Sanguinetti to help restaurants create demand by rebranding asian carp as “silver fin”. Clint Carter, a commercial fisherman and owner of Carter’s Fish Market states, “Eating them not only reduces the risk for the Great Lakes … but creating a demand for them puts people like me out there to get them out of the water” [11].

M. Banadaki

By labeling species “invasive” we stigmatize them as “other”. The intent is to marshall resources against them in order to defend the local ecosystem, but once invasive species gain an ecological foothold, they are rarely purged. What we instead accomplish is to stigmatize a permanent resident of the local ecology, making it more difficult to use them and thus step in as an active participant in the ecosystem, namely as a surrogate predator.

Alternative Approaches

Emerging alternative philosophies on invasive species management question the utility of labeling species as separate from the ecosystems that they come to inhabit. Dr. Nicholas Reo, Associate Professor of Environmental Studies and Native American Studies at Dartmouth College and citizen of the Sault Ste. Marie Tribe of Chippewa Indians in Michigan is helping redefine existing labels and approaches to invasive species. “I have been told by some Anishinaabe collaborators that every plant and animal is useful to us in some way or multiple ways...It is our responsibility to figure out how they are useful." [9]

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Eat the Invaders

Eat the Invaders and Can’t Beat Em’ Eat Em’ are organizations that seek to provide recipes and information regarding invasive species that are safe to eat. Chef Phillippe Parola, originally from France, now lives in Louisiana and works with the Louisiana Department of Wildlife and Fisheries to destigmatize Nutria (Myocastor coypus).  “‘It’s all food, it’s natural protein and it's a shame to see it wasted’...Instead of spending time and resources attempting to eradicate these species, Parola advocates for the creation of a commercial market for edible invasive products.” [12] This approach encourages humans to step in as a surrogate alpha predator in ecosystems which have not yet established a natural predator for invasive species. As the vector for invasive species introduction, humans have an obligation to re-establishes homeostasis through surrogate predation, ideally leveraging markets to establish a demand that supply can then meet.

Material Overabundance

We must revisit the utility of defining a species as “invasive.” Destigmatizing introduced species has the potential to reframe their place in local ecosystems and remove a significant barrier to their consumption, both in the food industry as well as other product categories. What is needed is a concerted rebranding of invasive species by way of the products that we can make from them, one that tells a local story about conservation, identity, and humanity’s place in and responsibility to nature.

Efforts to build product markets from invasive species are generally grassroots efforts that have failed to establish themselves in mainstream commercial product markets. Although we now regularly see recycled fishing net plastic and sustainable or green material sourcing in high end products, invasive species sourcing still remains in its infancy.

M. Banadaki

Megan Heeres created the Invasive Paper Project at Simone DeSousa Gallery in Detroit, MI in 2017 as a form of community outreach to raise awareness about invasive plants through craft. Paper making workshops using honeysuckle and other invasive species “addresses invasive plants not as things to be cast-off, but rather as potential assets to our communities if treated carefully.”

Lousie Barteau hosts “Paper Making from Plants” to workshops in Philadelphia as she creates her own paper by using invasive Japanese knotweed, phragmites, Amur peppervine, oriental bittersweet, Japanese honeysuckle, hostas, daylilies, and Japanese stiltgrass [14].

As part of Sudburry Weed Education and Eradication Team in Sudburry, Massechusettes, Nancy Reilly helps to reduce the stigma of invasive Asiatic bittersweet by using it to build bespoke furniture [15]. 

mussels

M. Banadaki

History

Quagga mussels (Quagga Dreissena rostriformis bugensis) and Zebra Mussels (Zebra Dreissena polymorpha) arrived from the Ukraine and Russia in the 1980’s, transported here in the ballast tanks of transport ships. Since their introduction they have transformed the great lakes ecosystem, growing at densities of 7,790 mussels per cubic meter and proliferating at depths of 540 feet. Each mussel can lay a million eggs per year, live 2 to 5 years, and begin producing eggs of their own after just 12 months.[16] 

Effects on Ecosystem & Infrastructure

M. Banadaki

Zebra mussels can attach themselves to almost any surface using strands called bissal threads. Once attached they clog water treatment and power station pipes, cling to boats hulls, docks, and propellor blades, clog engine intakes, and make beaches inhospitable with their sharp shells [17].

Invasive mussels overwhelm native mussels by growing over them, suffocating them, and then outcompete them for food. By coating the bottom of lakes they prevent aquatic life from burrowing and spawning in lake bottoms. By over consuming plankton, they increase water clarity, allowing light to reach deeper, causing toxic algae blooms, threatening human and aquatic life. As they rapidly consume plankton, they also biomagnify toxins leading to the poisoning of native species that prey on them as well as the water around them [18].

Remediation

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Efforts to remediate zebra and quagga mussels have been largely ineffective due the high cost.  Zebra mussels have been collected and ground into sand for road work construction. A machine called “The Beachmaker” was created by Gregory Books in 2012 to “transform unusable beaches buried beneath piles of razor-sharp, bacteria-laden shells back to warm, soft, sandy beaches” by grinding the shells into sand [19].

Molluscicide has also been used to try to deter mussels from forming colonies on infrastructure, but has been known to cause damage to other species within the ecosystem [20]. These efforts have been largely ineffective at diminishing or halting the proliferation or ecological impacts of zebra and quagga mussels [21].

Zebra Glass

Looked at as a material resource, zebra and quagga mussel shells are composed of approximately 95% Calcium Carbonate as well as other elements including trace metals and other chemicals that they bioaccumulate. A study done by Michele Regina Rosa Hamester, Palova Santos Balzer and Daniela Becker of Instituto Superior Tupy and the Universidade Estadual de Santa Catarina in Brazil reveals that 

“Calcium Carbonate can be obtained from oyster and mussel shells and is technically possible to replace...commercial Calcium Carbonate” [25]

When heated to 1000 degrees Celsius, Calcium Carbonate is transformed into calcium oxide (lime). [26] This chemical reaction has been known and utilized for thousands of years in the production of glass. “Roman glass [is] generally believed to be made from quartz sand (silica) containing marine shells (calcium carbonate), and mineral natron (sodium carbonate) as main compounds of the batch.”[27]

Zebra mussel shells also contain trace amounts of other minerals and metals, which will constitute natural or bio-accumulated colorants for zebra glass, giving the glass different color properties depending upon the region or lake the mussels are harvested from  [28]

“As little as 0.001% metallic oxides will impart color to glass” [29].

glass

Local Glass Production

The Great Lakes region has a very long history of  glass making, through nearby large- and small-scale glass production and manufacturing. “Michigan ranks third in the US in industrial sand production” a significant proportion of it supplying the glass industry. Libbey Glass has been operating in the region since 1888 when it moved to begin production of Edison light bulbs [22]. Automotive glass has been produced in factories throughout the upper and lower peninsulas of Michigan to supply the automobile industry. [23]

Material Chemistry (Silica, Soda, Lime)

Typical Soda Lime Glass making requires three main ingredients:

A former (silica) from sand which constitutes 70-75% of the mix by weight “According to Dr. Glenn K. Lockwood, a ceramic engineer, ‘At high temperatures, Silica liquefies into a very viscous melt that generally impedes crystallization kinetically when it goes below its melting temperature.’…”

A flux (soda) or sodium oxide makes up 12-16% of the mix. “…helps reduce the melting temperature of the silica. However, its addition also makes the resulting glass soluble in water.” which necessitates….

A stabilizer (lime) or calcium oxide makes up 10-15% of the mix “…Although an excess of calcium oxide to a silica melt will cause devitrification, additions of small amounts of lime stabilize the glass melt with respect to water, fixing the problem of water solubility introduced with the soda component.” [24]

The final % is made up of balancing agents and colorants.

Processing (gather, boil, clean, grind, sift)

To process zebra glass we begin by collecting zebra and quagga mussel shells off of the beaches of Muskegon and Lake St. Clair, where the species was first introduced in 1989. Then the shells are boiled to remove excess organic matter. The shells are then ground into a fine texture with a mortar and pestle. Lastly, the newly ground shells are sifted to ensure a fine, uniform consistency.

Batching (chemical processes and proportions) and Firing

Two of our main ingredients Sodium Bicarbonate (NaHCO3) and Calcium Carbonate (CaCO3) go through several chemical reactions, losing a great deal of mass in CO2 and H2O as they transform into Soda (Na2O) and Lime (CaO). In order to have the correct proportions of final ingredients carried out batching calculations using molar masses.

We decided to try two recipes at the extremes of the the (flux&stabilizer)/(silica) range for soda glass from our research. The stabilizer/flux ratio was held fairly constant for this experiment: Recipe 1 high flux/stabilizer, low silica and Recipe 2 low flux/stabilizer, high silica.

Firing temperatures and ramp rates are crucial to avoid boiling over of the melt which can affect batch mix proportions and potentially cause damage to the kiln.

color

Glass Color and Chemistry

M. Banadaki

“Soda Lime Glass is primarily colored through added earth metal ions, colloidal particles formed within the glass, or from particles that are colored themselves. ” [30] 

Metal oxide ions absorb light wavelengths resulting in coloration. Colloidal particles are formed in suspension during glass formation. They scatter light of specific frequencies resulting in coloration. Colored particles can also be introduced directly into the glass batch resulting in coloration.

We anticipate metal oxide ions from the environment that the mussels have ingested will constitute the majority of color expression.

Common metal colorants for Soda Lime Glass include:  Cobalt Oxide: Blue, Nickel Oxide: Violet, Sulfur: Yellow-Amber, Iron Oxide: Green Brown, Copper Compounds: Blue, Red and Green and Led Compounds: Yellow.” [31]

Geological Color

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Minerals and metals within bedrock contribute to regional chemical compositions, and in turn, can come to define the biochemistry of great lakes ecosystems.  “Precambrian bedrock hosts concentrations of minerals mined to recover elements such as iron, copper, and gold” [32].

Lake Superior’s watershed contains  “the world's largest untapped copper deposit — an estimated 4 billion tons of copper-nickel ores that may be worth more than $1 trillion” [33]. A Northern Michigan Nickel and Copper mine (Eagle Mine, Marquette, Michigan)  alone contributes $4.3 billion for Michigan’s economy. “The mine is expected to produce 365 million pounds of nickel, and 295 million pounds of copper, and trace amounts of other minerals over its estimated mine life (2014 – mid-2025)” [34]. Because copper, iron and nickel minerals are already found in Lake Superior’s watershed, it is likely that their coloring will contribute to the color of Zebra Glass, making the glass from this region blue, green or red from copper, green or brown from iron and violet from nickel [35].

Lake Huron will likely have white or yellow attributes due to the region’s high levels of Quartz (87%-94%), Feldspar (10-18%) and magnetite (1-3%). “Potash, bromine, sodium, and chloride are mined near and below the Detroit Region”, contributing bio accumulated colors to Lake Huron and to Lake Erie [36]. 

“Calcite, Fluorite, Quartz, Chalcedony, Sphalerite” are minerals specific to the Ohio region of Lake Erie, resulting in yellow brown color.  

The areas surrounding Lake Ontario are “leading producer of metals such as platinum group metals, nickel, cobalt, gold, copper, silver and zinc. To date, the total value of all metal production in Ontario is estimated at $534 billion dollars” [37]. Traces of Nickel, Cobalt and Gold within Lake Ontario’s ecosystem will may contribute to a bluish-gray tone for Zebra Glass. 

Lastly, Lake Michigan  contains “very high silica [due to surrounding sand dune] and very low metal oxide content” [38].  “Wisconsin has 1,148 records of mines listed by the United States Geological Survey” [39]. Lead , Zinc , Copper , Iron , and Silver mines located in Wisconsin, likely contributing to a bluish violet color for Zebra Glass [40].

Aqueous Color

Our predictions for zebra glass color will require confirmation and experimentation through process and material iteration. Many factors can affect trace element concentrations in mussels ranging from “natural occuring mineral formations,…individual size,…season of sampling,…the effectivenes of internal regulation,…and the unique environmental characteristics of each site.” [41]

There is some uncertainty as to how much regional geology will effect zebra glass color. Although “"Polluted sediments are considered the largest source of contaminants, including metals, in Great Lakes food chains [42]… the results clearly showed that except for Mg, metal concentrations in zebra mussels were not significantly influenced by concentrations of metals in nearby sediments.”

“This lack of influence occurs despite the presence of highly significant differences in metal concentrations among sites in both mussels and sediments and a significant relationship between % fines and concentrations of all the metals in sediments and some of the metals in mussels. Metal concentrations in the soft tissues of zebra mussels generally vary with concentrations in ambient waters. [43] Thus, results of the data analysis suggest that metal concentrations in the water to which the mussels were exposed in this study were driven by other more influential factors than sediment metal concentrations.” [44]

Trial and error will help build a catalog of results from which we can make founded judgements on the relationship between glass color, zebra mussel biochemistry, and regional macro and micro chemical concentrations.

Chromatic Identity

Using color as a tool to represent location provides the opportunity to regionally brand Zebra Glass, expressing community and belonging by revealing something as deeply emotional and personal as color. This chromatic identity will be expressed through local and regional bio-accumulated colorants.  This visual representation of the region questions what it means to be invasive. Ideally, Zebra Glass utilizes Zebra and Quagga Mussels from each Great Lake, resulting in subtle or even dramatic color shifts based on the unique mineral and metal signatures of each ecosystem.

results & future work

Glass Extraction

After removal from the kiln the crucibles were cut in half. One half was preserved as a section of the batch melt. The glass was extracted from the other half of the crucible, documented, and then crushed for later casting.

Glass Appearance & Color

Next Steps

For further experimentation to test the accuracy and range of regional color…

1. Pure calcium carbonate can be used instead of Zebra Mussels to establish a baseline for color.

2. Rinsing the zebra mussels instead of boiling them to keep organic material intact could intensify color by including the bioaccumulated metals in the zebra mussel flesh.

3. Zebra Mussels from different regions, different lakes, or even different locations in the water column for instance deep-water vs shoreline Zebra and Quagga Mussels can be compared and cataloged.

4. Zebra Glass as a glaze for ceramics

Applications

In conjunction with our collaborators, we are currently exploring several applications of zebra glass:

• Zebra Glass can raise awareness about invasive species, local ecologies, biochemical processes, material science, and design through cooperation with local museums, science centers, and science programs.

• Create identity within the region by collaborating with local glass and ceramics artists creating the potential to build local identity and local markets through branded color.

• Defining identity outside the region through industrial and corporate partnerships in product categories ranging from home goods to accessories.