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|Title:||Establishing native submersed aquatic plant communities in southern reservoirs|
Aquatic Plant Control Research Program (U.S.)
Smart, R. Michael.
Doyle, Robert D. (Robert Donald)
Madsen, John Douglas.
Dick, Gary Owen, 1956-
|Keywords:||Aquatic plant establishment|
|Publisher:||Environmental Laboratory (U.S.)|
Engineer Research and Development Center (U.S.)
Abstract: Native aquatic macrophytes are desirable components of reservoir ecosystems for fish habitat, water quality benefits, and protection from invasion by nuisance exotic species. Unfortunately, unvegetated turbid reservoirs appear to be held in that state because of a deficiency of plant propagules and an inhospitable environment for seedling establishment. While weedy exotic species such as hydrilla (Hydrilla verticillata) or Eurasian watermilfoil (Myriophyllum spicatum) appear to easily establish in reservoirs without native vegetation, these are poor long-term components of reservoir ecosystems since they lead to serious management and ecological problems. Native plants, in contrast, offer excellent habitat and water quality benefits but provide few management problems. This report reviews basic ecological considerations for selecting appropriate native species and determining planting locations. Revegetation efforts are most successful when focused on establishing founder populations of native plants within protective exclosures at carefully selected sites. Once established, these founder populations change the environmental conditions within their vicinity to be more hospitable to further plant establishment and provide propagules to other sites within the reservoir.
|Rights:||Approved for public release; distribution is unlimited.|
|Appears in Collections:||Technical Report|
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|TR-A-96-2.pdf||8.31 MB||Adobe PDF|