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Cattails (Typha spp.) are invasive plants in wetlands throughout the US, from the Prairie potholes of the Midwest, to the Florida Everglades, to New Jersey’s urban wetlands. Cattails form dense stands that exclude other plant species, thus changing local biodiversity and wetland functions. The objective of the project is to understand the mechanisms by which cattails dominate the plant community. The information from our results will be applied to future wetland conservation and restoration projects where invasive plants are a concern.
We will tackle this question with both a field experiment and survey of urban wetlands. We will manage field plots with different treatments to assess the conditions that lead to establishment of other species vs. conditions that lead to competitive exclusion by cattails. As part of a team, the student will manage and document study plots. The student will track plant growth, take water and soil samples in the field, and analyze them in the lab. We will visit and survey additional urban wetland sites to document plant and soil conditions and test predictions regarding cattail growth patterns. The project site is a residential community in Pennsylvania along the Delaware River that has a series of infiltration basins that will provide wetland units for study sites.
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