Mentor/s
Professor LaTina Steele
Participation Type
Poster
Abstract
Eurasian watermilfoil (Myriophyllum spicatum) is an invasive aquatic plant that may dominate lakes and waterways throughout the U.S. It is known to crowd out native plants and create dense mats that interfere with recreational activity. Milfoil also produces allelopathic chemicals, such as phenolics, that may give the invasive plant a competitive advantage over native species like Elodea canadensis. In a laboratory competition experiment, we tested the effects of competition and temperature on growth and phenolic levels in both Myriophyllum spicatum and Elodea canadensis. The experiment consisted of six replicates each of six treatments (M. spicatum alone, E. canadensis alone, and the two species grown together, with each combination of plants grown at ambient temperature and with the temperature increased by 2°C using individual aquarium heaters). After three weeks, the length of each plant fragment was measured, the number of branches on each fragment was counted, each fragment was weighed, and mean growth per fragment was calculated as the change in weight. Plant fragments were frozen for phenolic analysis at the end of the experiment. In general, M. spicatum showed more growth and produced more phenolics than E. canadensis in all treatments. At higher temperatures E. canadensis produced fewer phenolics than at lower temperatures. Based on these results, it is possible that rising temperatures due to climate change will increase invasive milfoil’s competitive advantage over native E. canadensis by shifting herbivory to the less chemically defended native plant.
College and Major available
Biology
Location
University Commons
Start Day/Time
4-21-2017 1:00 PM
End Day/Time
4-21-2017 3:00 PM
Comments
Eastern Colleges Science Conference, Wilkes-Barre, PA, April 2017. E-107. Retrieved from http://www.ecsc1.org/2017.html
Creative Commons License
This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-Noncommercial-Share Alike 3.0 License.
Phenolic Levels of Invasive Myriophyllum spicatum and Native Elodea canadensis at Different Temperatures
University Commons
Eurasian watermilfoil (Myriophyllum spicatum) is an invasive aquatic plant that may dominate lakes and waterways throughout the U.S. It is known to crowd out native plants and create dense mats that interfere with recreational activity. Milfoil also produces allelopathic chemicals, such as phenolics, that may give the invasive plant a competitive advantage over native species like Elodea canadensis. In a laboratory competition experiment, we tested the effects of competition and temperature on growth and phenolic levels in both Myriophyllum spicatum and Elodea canadensis. The experiment consisted of six replicates each of six treatments (M. spicatum alone, E. canadensis alone, and the two species grown together, with each combination of plants grown at ambient temperature and with the temperature increased by 2°C using individual aquarium heaters). After three weeks, the length of each plant fragment was measured, the number of branches on each fragment was counted, each fragment was weighed, and mean growth per fragment was calculated as the change in weight. Plant fragments were frozen for phenolic analysis at the end of the experiment. In general, M. spicatum showed more growth and produced more phenolics than E. canadensis in all treatments. At higher temperatures E. canadensis produced fewer phenolics than at lower temperatures. Based on these results, it is possible that rising temperatures due to climate change will increase invasive milfoil’s competitive advantage over native E. canadensis by shifting herbivory to the less chemically defended native plant.
