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CISMA Call Agenda

1:30pm Introductions

Kris Serbesoff-King

1:35pm Technical Presentation

Water Lettuce by Jason Evans

2:05pm CISMA Updates:

ARSA CISMA by Brian Pelc

2:20pm Shout outs

2:30pm End

Technical Presentation

Water Lettuce

By Jason Evans

Bartram’s Floating Fields Evidence for Pistia stratiotes (water lettuce) as a native Florida species

Webinar for:

Cooperative Invasive Species Management Areas (CISMA) Program

September 24, 2014

Jason M. Evans, PhD

My life, August 2000 – March 2001

My life, August 2000 – March 2001

My life, August 2000 – March 2001

The Ichetucknee River is a beautiful place

http://springseternalproject.org/wp-content/uploads/2013/04/ichetucknee-fireflies.moran_.sRGB_.jpg

“Waterlettuce is a non-native prohibited floating plant, which has created only minor problems on the Ichetucknee River” Florida Exotic Pest Plant Council lists water lettuce as Class 1 invasive species

Ichetucknee water lettuce

Ichetucknee water lettuce

High Springs Herald, December 2004

Courtesy of Joe Hand, Florida Department of Environmental Protection

Water lettuce harvest/disposal

March 2001

Howard T. Odum, 1924 – 2002

• With brother Eugene, considered as a founder of ecosystem ecology • Stream ecology • Wetland ecology • Ecological engineering • Ecological economics • Estuarine ecology

• Mercer award in Ecology (1956)

• French Prix de Vie (1975)

• Craaford Prize (1987) - considered Nobel Prize equivalent for bioscience

Blue Hole: 6 years after Pistia eradication

Mission Springs: 6 years after Pistia eradication

Devil’s Eye Spring

2000

Photo by J. Follman

(Follman and Buchanan 2007)

Courtesy of Joe Hand, Florida Department of Environmental Protection

Devils Eye May 2001 Joe Hand, Florida DEP

High Springs Herald, September 2006

High Springs Herald, December 2004

• Fauna: Spring run crayfish and loggerhead musk turtles rapidly declined in recent years

• Flora: Several species of submersed plants have almost disappeared from the upper river since 2000

Ichetucknee Springs Nitrate: 1966 - 2006

R2 = 0.8689

0

0.1

0.2

0.3

0.4

0.5

0.6

0.7

0.8

0.9

1

1965 1970 1975 1980 1985 1990 1995 2000 2005

Nit

rate

(m

g/L

)

Ichetucknee Springs Nitrate: 1985 - 2006

R2 = 0.1369

0

0.1

0.2

0.3

0.4

0.5

0.6

0.7

0.8

0.9

1984 1986 1988 1990 1992 1994 1996 1998 2000 2002 2004 2006

Nit

rate

(m

g/L

)

Water lettuce ecology

• Contains high concentration of algicidal compounds (Aliota et al. 1991; Gross 2003)

• Used in pond culture to prevent “nuisance algae” blooms (Cohen 1993)

• “Luxury” consumption of nutrients, sometimes used for wastewater treatment in tropical countries (Sridhar 1986; Tripathi et al. 1991)

• Can provide important nursery habitat for crayfish, endemic fish, and other aquatic species in Florida (USGS 2007)

Systems model

That‘s nice, but it’s an exotic and doesn’t belong in Florida….

Management background

• Considered non-native invasive species in all areas of U.S.

http://nas.er.usgs.gov/queries/factsheet.aspx?SpeciesID=1099

Management background

• Overgrowth of Pistia is common in nutrient-enriched waters and can have undesirable consequences • Prevent navigation

• Mosquito habitat

• Anoxia

Management background

Non-native species maintenance control program to control species Pistia in Florida waters

http://www.hillsboroughcounty.org/communications/photolib/home.cfm?chvSubCat2=Mosquito%20Control&chvCategory=Mosquito%20Control

William (and John) Bartram, however, did see it in the 18th century

A species that gets around…

Anatomy of a hypothesis

• Suspicions of Pistia as non-native in Florida began with successful hyacinth control program in 1960s and 1970s

• Pistia’s relative resistance

to 2,4-D allowed for population growth after hyacinth control operations

This response can be described by known factors: Competitive release + Eutrophication + Hydrologic disturbance

Observations of ecological invasiveness do not formally confirm non-native status

For Florida’s Pistia, the non-native hypothesis requires a pre-1765 introduction account to explain Bartram

http://www.beautifulfunnysadandtrue.com/its-not-for-shaving/

Ballast water hypothesis

From USDA National Invasive Species Information Center:

Means of Introduction: Unknown (possibly native to the U.S., or it may have arrived in ballast water)

Occam is unconvinced

Colonial Spanish ships (and, for that matter, all pre-19th century ships) used dry ballast

How did a freshwater plant get into the ballast (dry, water, or otherwise) of an ocean-going ship?

Would the saltwater intolerant plant survive hostile ballast conditions?

How did a freshwater plant successfully establish and move upstream from coastal ballast dump locations?

*

* http://eattheinvaders.org/we-came-over-on-the-mayflower-too/

Stay with me here…

A) High numbers of specialist herbivores found in Pistia at Chacos, Argentina

B) Florida’s Pistia, by contrast, was found to contain no specialist herbivores

C) Total number of herbivorous species (generalists + specialists) is similar for Pistia at Chacos and Florida

D) A+B+C suggest that Florida’s Pistia has had less continuous tenure than Chacos populations

E) Florida’s Pistia population is likely of non-native origin

Dray et al. (1993)

http://www.invasive.org/browse/detail.cfm?imgnum=0002017 Neohydronomus affinis (Water lettuce weevil) Specialist herbivore native to South America

Timing of Pistia “reinvasion” into Florida suggested as “soon after European settlements were established” (Dray and Center 2002)

However, Dray et al. (1993, pg. 1147) argue that evolution of local specialists would imply “at least 10,000 years” of continuous regional presence

Typical definition of native tenure only requires pre-1492 establishment (500 years)

http://www.motifake.com/facebookview.php?id=8200

Given the scientific and logical weakness of all this, the “null” hypothesis of native as suggested by the Bartram sightings should have never been rejected for Florida’s Pistia

“H.T.’s” fossil Described by Edward W. Berry, Paleobotanist at John Hopkins Mary Clark Thompson Medal (1942) from National Academy of Sciences (Wikipedia)

Digitized and on-line in 2008

Berry (1917, pg 662)

Pistia spathulata is a taxonomic synonym for Pistia stratiotes Strata containing Pistia later carbon dated to 12,000 – 3,550 BP (Weigel 1962)

But why didn’t Bill Watts ever find it?

Pistia reported in Holocene sediments at Lake Annie by Quillen et al. (2013)

Pollen and macro fossil seeds from Lake Annie, FL

Unpublished data, W. Watts and E.C. Grimm (obtained from E.C. Grimm)

Positive case for native status

• Several locally unique insect species have been described in association with Florida Pistia (Chan and

Linley 1988; Chan and Linley 1989; Chan and Linley 1990; Wirth and Linley 1990; Chan and Linley 1991)

• Springs endemic dense hydrobe snail (Aphaostracon pycnus) described with possible floating plant specialization at Alexander Springs (Thompson 1968)

More speculatively… • Springs may have provided

paleo-refugia for Pistia in Florida

• Pistia persistence has been

recently reported in thermal streams located in relatively cold climate zones – Idaho (Howard 2010)

– Slovenia (Sajna et al. 2007)

• Freshwater thermal springs may have been present as far south as Biscayne Bay and in currently submersed areas during Pleistocene glacial maxima

Conservation implications?

• Herbiciding of Pistia may be ecologically problematic in spring runs

• Particularly those with snail populations (Corrao et al. 2006) that may be: • Evolutionarily adapted to utilize native

Pistia

• Potentially sensitive to herbicides (Shelton 2005)

• Sensitive to dissolved oxygen sags (Shelton 2005), which have been shown to follow some herbicide treatments of floating plants (Wetland Solutions, Inc. 2006)

Ichetucknee Springs, Florida – May 2007

Recommended next steps

• Phylogenetic studies to search for unique Florida biotypes and any evidence of “cryptic” invasion

Thanks for your attention

Acknowledgements: Funding from E.T. York Presidential Fellowship, University of Florida, School of Natural Resources and the Environment. Much advisement and encouragement from A.C. Wilkie, R.L. Knight, M.T. Brown, M. Cohen, J. Heffernan, S. Humphrey, J. Miller, R.P. Haynes, R.J. Burkhardt, R. Hamann, H. Spivey, S. Kingery, J. Dame, L. Andersen, J. Smith, and many others.

CISMA Update

Apalachicola Regional Stewardship Alliance CISMA

By Brian Pelc

9/25/14

B.Pelc

ARSA CISMA Update

• Fun data about natal grass • Private lands work • Volunteer events • Community Outreach • Proposed NNIS-Restore Act funds

ARSA CISMA ED/RR Protocol

Began in ’12

• Data from FNAI/EDDMaps

• ED/RR ranking committee

2013 update

2014 update in April

Natal grass (Melinis repens)

Known Current Occurrences

Bald Point State Park

Treatments: Control, whole-plant pull, seed clip, post-emergent herbicide (2% glyphosate), pre+post emergent herbicide (3% pendimethalin +2% glyphosate)…all treatments 2x per month or as needed

1M Diameter Sampling Area

Plot Design

Initial Natal Grass Efforts

5 month data

Take Home Messages 1. Natal grass control in ARSA CISMA by whole plant pull

is as effective as herbicide 2. No difference between post and pre+post emergent

chemicals 3. Anecdotal info about mowing (buffer clip) response

varies 4. Noticeable diffs between public and private

populations 5. 6 month patterns established quickly…1 yr tbd 6. Could be a model for EDRR investigations elsewhere

NFWF PTI Grant 2014

• Survey for Invasives on ANF…began

• Survey and Treat on St. Marks NWR…beginning

• Treat on Tyndall Air Force Base…drafted

• Treat on private adjacent to conservation land in Leon Co

• Deliverables: 190 acres total (survey + treat)

2 outreach events w/ 30 contacts

• City of Tallahassee

• M of Tallahassee

• Crowder, Inc • St. Joe Timber

100 acre goal Buffer FFS and USFS properties

USFWS Partners for Fish and Wildlife

• 17 acres treated near ABRP • Tradescantia treatment did

not work

• Respray 57 acres of climbing fern near ANF/NFWMD land

Tradescantia fluminensis

Shuler before Shuler after

Used 3% glyphosate, 0.5% surfactant and 15%bark oil…contractor has done follow up communication with peers and heard methylated seed oil is the key

Volunteer/Outreach Events

• Fall- Spring Monthly events with FNPS and FTA

• N Florida Fair Booth with UF- IFAS

• Speaking engagements

ARSA Restore Proposal

• $15m total proposal

– $7m for hydrologic restoration

– $5m for habitat improvement

– $3m for private lands management

• Invasive species management and Rx fire focus of the $5m piece

• Will require approval of Restore Council

Shout Outs

What’s happening?

What’s happened?

What’s about to happen?

Next Month’s Call

October 22, 2014

Technical Presentation:

Hydrilla by Jim Cuda

CISMA Update: Heartland CISMA

4th Wednesday of Every Month at 1:30pm

Except November and December

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