Biodiversity is the key to ecosystems remaining resilient when faced with environmental stressors. Wetlands are some of our most biodiverse ecosystems. Still, even second cut forests and farmland are faced with challenges related to invasive species, which are known in both wetlands and on land to alter the biodiversity of a region dramatically.
Eradication Difficulties
Most invasive species have some particular skill or attribute that gives them a leg up in a particular ecosystem. They tend to have the ability to propagate from any part of the plant, which makes eradication difficult by the usual methods of pulling weeds. They tend to crowd out native species and interfere with the ability of the ecosystem to provide food and nesting for a variety of animals.
The particular need for nursery trees and species, especially for tropical commodity crops, is an example of a particularly biodiverse ecosystem that has been disrupted by invasives. In wetlands, invasives interfere with the ability of the normally biodiverse ecosystem to control erosion and floods and protect water quality.
Invasive Species Management
Invasive species management has been quite unsuccessful, mostly due to the strength of the particular species for the region it has invaded. Adaptive management programs use a variety of techniques, including biological controls, attempting to pull invaders, and then reestablish native species; careful application of specific herbicides. However, many of the invasives can regenerate from any part of the root or plant, making usual efforts to eradicate the plant difficult to impossible.
New Process Involving GeoTextiles
One particularly difficult invasive, Japanese knotweed, is being treated to a new process that involves harvesting the standing plant material and adding GeoTextiles to cover the roots. The plants, the leaves, and stems go to the local zoo, where certain herbivores delight in their taste. Then the ground, which contains the roots and plant pieces, is dug under up to ten feet, and covered with GeoTextiles. New soil on top can then be used to reestablish a grouping of native species of plants, which support a biodiverse group of insects. This new model, while labor-intensive, is one of the few success stories in efforts to manage invasive species.
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