The role of eutrophication in the biological control of water hyacinth, Eichhornia crassipes, in South Africa

South Africa has some of the most eutrophic aquatic systems in the world, as a result of the adoption of an unnecessarily high 1 mg l-1 phosphorus (P) standard for all water treatment works in the 1970 s. The floating aquatic macrophyte, water hyacinth (Eichhornia crassipes (Mart.) Solms (Pontederia...

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Main Author: Coetzee, Julie A.
Format: Others
Language:English
Published: 2011
Online Access:http://hdl.handle.net/10962/69263
https://doi.org/10.1007/s10526-011-9426-y
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spelling ndltd-netd.ac.za-oai-union.ndltd.org-rhodes-vital-294742018-10-20T05:12:10ZThe role of eutrophication in the biological control of water hyacinth, Eichhornia crassipes, in South AfricaCoetzee, Julie A.South Africa has some of the most eutrophic aquatic systems in the world, as a result of the adoption of an unnecessarily high 1 mg l-1 phosphorus (P) standard for all water treatment works in the 1970 s. The floating aquatic macrophyte, water hyacinth (Eichhornia crassipes (Mart.) Solms (Pontederiaceae), has taken advantage of these nutrient rich systems, becoming highly invasive and damaging. Despite the implementation of a biological control programme in South Africa, water hyacinth remains the worst aquatic weed. A meta-analysis of published and unpublished laboratory studies that investigated the combined effect of P and nitrogen (N) water nutrient concentration and control agent herbivory showed that water nutrient status was more important than herbivory in water hyacinth growth. Analysis of long-term field data collected monthly from 14 sites around South Africa between 2004 and 2005 supported these findings. Therefore, the first step in any water hyacinth control programme should be to reduce the nutrient status of the water body.2011textarticle15 pagespdfhttp://hdl.handle.net/10962/69263vital:29474https://doi.org/10.1007/s10526-011-9426-yEnglishBioControlPublisher or authorUse of this resource is governed by the terms and conditions of the Creative Commons "Attribution-NonCommercial-ShareAlike" License (http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc-sa/2.0/)
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language English
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description South Africa has some of the most eutrophic aquatic systems in the world, as a result of the adoption of an unnecessarily high 1 mg l-1 phosphorus (P) standard for all water treatment works in the 1970 s. The floating aquatic macrophyte, water hyacinth (Eichhornia crassipes (Mart.) Solms (Pontederiaceae), has taken advantage of these nutrient rich systems, becoming highly invasive and damaging. Despite the implementation of a biological control programme in South Africa, water hyacinth remains the worst aquatic weed. A meta-analysis of published and unpublished laboratory studies that investigated the combined effect of P and nitrogen (N) water nutrient concentration and control agent herbivory showed that water nutrient status was more important than herbivory in water hyacinth growth. Analysis of long-term field data collected monthly from 14 sites around South Africa between 2004 and 2005 supported these findings. Therefore, the first step in any water hyacinth control programme should be to reduce the nutrient status of the water body.
author Coetzee, Julie A.
spellingShingle Coetzee, Julie A.
The role of eutrophication in the biological control of water hyacinth, Eichhornia crassipes, in South Africa
author_facet Coetzee, Julie A.
author_sort Coetzee, Julie A.
title The role of eutrophication in the biological control of water hyacinth, Eichhornia crassipes, in South Africa
title_short The role of eutrophication in the biological control of water hyacinth, Eichhornia crassipes, in South Africa
title_full The role of eutrophication in the biological control of water hyacinth, Eichhornia crassipes, in South Africa
title_fullStr The role of eutrophication in the biological control of water hyacinth, Eichhornia crassipes, in South Africa
title_full_unstemmed The role of eutrophication in the biological control of water hyacinth, Eichhornia crassipes, in South Africa
title_sort role of eutrophication in the biological control of water hyacinth, eichhornia crassipes, in south africa
publishDate 2011
url http://hdl.handle.net/10962/69263
https://doi.org/10.1007/s10526-011-9426-y
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