Journal Number 3: Steelhead Park

Steelhead Park at first glance was extremely vibrant with its high abundance of plants (it seemed very similar to a jungle). However, the plants seemed more brown and dry in comparison to other sites. We examined as access the health of Steelhead, and the results were second lowest low biodiversity out of all the sites. It is also noted that Steelhead had similar weather exposure and water availability similar to Lower Arroyo. There was a relative amount of nonnative plants in the area and animals, and it can be concluded that the combination of those two factors creates a situation that inhibits the growth of native plants. In the article “Conflicting Management Goals: Manatees and Invasive Competitors Inhibit Restoration of a Native Macrophyte”, the result showed that animals that consume primarily native plants and the growth of invasive creates a situation where it is difficult for the native plant's restoration. The experimenter planted the native plant Macrophyte in an ecosystem with non-native plants. It was found that 80% of the Native Macrophyte disappeared from the ecosystem. A possible explanation is that the animals greatly favored the consumption of native plant because it was the reason why some of the species thrive in that ecosystem in the first place. Additionally, the invasive plants dominate in growth and it gave a little area of the Macrophyte to grow. Another thing to point out is that a possible ratio of native to non-native species is the soil composition. In the article “Breaking New Ground: Soil Communities and Exotic Plant Invasion”, a diverse soil community also can respond to and mediate exotic plant invasions. Exotic plant invasions change the soil composition to meet the plant’s suitable living conditions. This allows some of the native and non-native plants to coexist. The non-native plants in not heavily dominated in comparison to Lower Arroyo, and this indicates coexistence in the ecosystem rather than the invasion. However, we are not exactly sure that the non-native plants will eventually dominate over the native plants. Currently, there is no restoration project being done at Steelhead. A restoration needs to be done in order for steelhead to not be in the same conditions as Marsh Park.

References:
Hauxwell, Jennifer, et al. “Conflicting Management Goals: Manatees and Invasive Competitors Inhibit Restoration of a Native Macrophyte.” Ecological Applications, vol. 14, no. 2, 2004, pp. 571–586. JSTOR, JSTOR, www.jstor.org/stable/4493559.

WOLFE, BENJAMIN E., and JOHN N. KLIRONOMOS. “Breaking New Ground: Soil
Communities and Exotic Plant Invasion.” BioScience, vol. 55, no. 6, 2005, pp. 477–487. JSTOR, JSTOR, www.jstor.org/stable/10.1641/0006-3568(2005)055[0477:bngsca]2.0.co;2.

Publicado el 10 de diciembre de 2017 a las 10:13 PM por lili11