Impact of non-native plant species on the displacement of native wetland vegetation at Caddo Lake.

摘要

Caddo Lake is listed as a Ramsar wetland of international importance. It is located in northeastern Texas and northwestern Louisiana. Like many lakes in the United States, Caddo Lake is being overpopulated by aquatic invasive vegetation. The invasive vegetation poses a problem both ecologically and economically. Plant-community types were classified in 1995 by their hydrologic regime. In the following years Caddo Lake was resampled to better understand the change of the lake on a temporal scale. The year-to-year changes in vegetation were found to be very fluid from one year to the next. Much of this constant change is a result in the changes in different environmental factors including; hydroperiod, temperature, and site elevation. In effort to better understand the dynamics of the invasive-native interactions a smaller scale survey of the vegetation was conducted. Although harsh environmental factors caused a decline among many plant species during the survey, current 2012 observations conclude a resurging of Salvinia molesta Mitchell. in much of the Lake.