1 / 19

Growth of native and exotic plants during the 2000 Low Steady Summer Flows

Growth of native and exotic plants during the 2000 Low Steady Summer Flows Or: Be careful what you ask for…. Marianne E. Porter Michael J.C. Kearsley Dept. of Biol. Sciences Northern AZ. University Flagstaff, AZ. Possible LSSF Experiment Outcomes : * Bla Bla Bla native fish recruitment

gaille
Download Presentation

Growth of native and exotic plants during the 2000 Low Steady Summer Flows

An Image/Link below is provided (as is) to download presentation Download Policy: Content on the Website is provided to you AS IS for your information and personal use and may not be sold / licensed / shared on other websites without getting consent from its author. Content is provided to you AS IS for your information and personal use only. Download presentation by click this link. While downloading, if for some reason you are not able to download a presentation, the publisher may have deleted the file from their server. During download, if you can't get a presentation, the file might be deleted by the publisher.

E N D

Presentation Transcript

  1. Growth of native and exotic plants during the 2000 Low Steady Summer Flows Or: Be careful what you ask for… Marianne E. Porter Michael J.C. Kearsley Dept. of Biol. Sciences Northern AZ. University Flagstaff, AZ

  2. Possible LSSF Experiment Outcomes: * Bla Bla Bla native fish recruitment * Bla Bla Bla seasonal hydrology * Bla Bla Bla near-shore current velocity * Bla Bla Bla increased water temperature *Recruitment of clonal herbaceous species (Equisetum, Juncus, Phragmites) *Recruitment of exotic species (Tamarix, Alhagi) in near shore areas

  3. Importance of plant colonization Vegetated shoreline: vegetation (primarily Tamarix chinensis) in or directly over the water, either rooted or inundated. May have intermittent stretches of other shoreline types. Densities of humpback chub are nearly double those found in other shoreline types (Converse et al 1998).

  4. Pre-Low Flows Conditions River Stage 31,500 19,000 8,000

  5. Pre-Low Flows Conditions

  6. Research Questions: Do plants colonize newly available habitat? (8 kcfs – 19 kcfs) Nature of these colonists? Native / Exotics? Clonal / Seed-dispersed? Impacts of a short-duration high flow? Effects of low flows on extant vegetation at the 31 kcfs stage elevation?

  7. = 0.25 m2 Plot Sampling Transect Design 31 kcfs 5 – 18 Plots / Transects 6 – 14 Transects / Site Sampled Monthly June – Sept 2000 April 2001 19 kcfs 8 kcfs

  8. Study PeriodHydrograph Sampling

  9. Nearshore Vegetation Study Sites

  10. Data Analysis Repeated Measures AOV on Plant Densities Time, Site, Time*Site Data Transformations All Species Individual Species Tamarisk, Equisetum

  11. Plant colonization: June

  12. Plant colonization: August

  13. Plants Below 19 kcfs

  14. High elevation Equisetum

  15. All Equisetum

  16. Low and High Elevation Tamarisk

  17. Winter Mortality is Low

  18. River’s Edge Mortality

  19. Conclusions • Plants colonized areas below 19,000 cfs creating subadult fish habitat • Colonists primarily Tamarisk • Clonal herbaceous species were slower • Fall high flows reduced plant densities • Winter mortality was low for all species • Recreation impacts of near-shore plants

More Related