Interactions of invasive and native submerged aquatic vegetation and impacts on ecosystem services

Submerged aquatic vegetation (SAV) are a crucial component of freshwaters that provide high value ecosystem services, including supplying habitat for diverse organisms and maintaining clear water. However, native SAV can be outcompeted by invasive ones that tend to grow in excess and are perceived as a nuisance by recreational users. Invasions are thus often heavily controlled for by a variety of techniques such as mowing, herbicide, drawdown, and many more. These control techniques have high cost, often have limited success and can be detrimental to freshwater ecosystems. At the same time in water bodies degraded by nutrient pollution, invasive SAV can help the native community to recover from past perturbation. Thus, no management could be the best solution in some places. Through a mesocosm experiment in lake Stechlin, Germany, this project will investigate how invasive SAV management could be unnecessary in lakes degraded by nutrient pollution. Through model simulations, this project will also compare how native and invasive SAV impact multiple ecosystem services beyond recreation. This project will bring back to Canada rare expertise on aquatic plant ecology and will provide both institutions novel information for the sustainable management of freshwater ecosystems.

Faculty Supervisor:

Irene Gregory-Eaves

Student:

Partner:

Leibniz-Institut für Gewässerökologie und Binnenfischerei

Discipline:

Earth science

Sector:

Water; Sustainability & the Environment; Environmental Science and Technology

University:

McGill University

Program: