- Posted by: Gale Perez
Assistant Professor - Aquatic Plant Management Specialist
University of Florida
This is a 12-month tenure-accruing position, appointed as 60% research (Florida Agricultural Experiment Station) and 40% extension (Florida Cooperative Extension Service), available in the Agronomy Department, Institute of Food and Agricultural Sciences, at the University of Florida. The assignment may change in accordance with the needs of the unit. The position will be located at the Center for Aquatic and Invasive Plants (CAIP) in Gainesville, FL with access to extensive laboratory and field facilities. Tenure will accrue in the Agronomy...
- Author: Guy B Kyser
This article from Science discusses a new species of crayfish (not just recently discovered, but an actual new species) that is self-cloning and highly invasive. It's not a weed, but it acts like one...
- Author: John Madsen
- Posted by: Guy B Kyser
We were sampling plots in the Delta in July 2016, and found a small clump of this plant – pickerelweed (Pontederia cordata). Generally considered a desirable native wetland plant, it happens to fall in the same botanical family as the baddest of the bad in the Delta – waterhyacinth (Eichhornia crassipes). What does family mean in the botanical world, anyway? Although native here, pickerelweed is at best considered “occasional” in the Delta. Waterhyacinth falls somewhere between “abundant” and a “scourge,” depending on the year of reference. While there are a number of similarities in appearance (particularly in the characteristics of the flower, which is the original...
- Author: John Miskella
- Posted by: Guy B Kyser
Waterhyacinth (Eichhornia crassipes) is a floating perennial species that has become a serious management issue as it invades aquatic ecosystems around the world. In the Sacramento-San Joaquin Delta in California, the species forms large, dense mats on the water surface that inhibit boating, fishing, water access, and decrease light availability below the floating mat.
While the leaves of waterhyacinth generally turn brown and die during the winter, many waterhyacinth plants survive the winter and grow new leaves in the spring. Warmer spring temperatures also cause the plants to grow stolons, or spreading stems, from which daughter plants grow (Figure 1). Stolon growth is a key driver of waterhyacinth...
- Author: Karen Jetter
- Author: Kjersti Nes
- Posted by: Guy B Kyser
The U.S. Bureau of Reclamation (BOR) is one of the agencies responsible for operating a facility that pumps water from the Sacramento-San Joaquin Delta into the California Aqueduct. The California Aqueduct pumps water for uses south of the facilities. This water is used for agriculture in the San Joaquin Valley valued at $33.4 billon in 2015 (CAC 2015), and for millions of other users in Californian homes and businesses.
Before that water can be pumped, debris, weeds and fish must be removed. This is done at the Tracy Fish Facility. A series of screens and diversions are used to remove the objects and capture the fish. The debris is mechanically removed from the river, and the fish are transported and released...