"When these invasive species come in, they change the nature of the ecosystem. We are interested in promoting biodiversity and oftentimes managers want to get rid of those invasive species," Lawrence says., but this approach is limited in effectiveness, says Lawrence, so the researchers were interested to see if mechanical harvesting methods could be a sustainable option for restoring the ecosystem.
The locations were all dominated by either cattail or Phragmites, and the team estimated the percentages of each. Half of the locations were randomly designated as controls and the team harvested biomass from the other half for two growing seasons. They also measured a variety of conditions before they started the experiment, such as biomass, soil chemistry, and the chemistry of the plant tissues.
"Your target contaminant should determine when and what to harvest. If you're focusing on metals, maybe focus on Phragmites and you could probably harvest in the winter, whereas if you are focusing on removing salts, it makes more sense to harvest cattail during the growing season." Fortunately, Lawrence says in a lot of areas of Connecticut, less salt is added to the roads compared to application rates on Chicago area roads, so harvesting cattail would likely remove a higher percentage of the salt in less-urban areas of the Nutmeg State.
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