Recovery of a Wild Rice Stand Following Mechanical Removal of Narrowleaf Cattail
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Recovery of a Wild Rice Stand following Mechanical Removal of Narrowleaf Cattail Prepared for: International Joint Commission By: Kristi E. Dysievick, Peter F. Lee and John Kabatay April, 2016 Seine River First Nation Table of Contents Abstract .......................................................................................................................................... 3 1.0 Introduction ............................................................................................................................. 4 2.0 Objectives................................................................................................................................. 7 3.0 Materials and Methods ........................................................................................................... 7 3.1.0 Study Area ...................................................................................................................................... 7 3.2 Field Procedures ............................................................................................................................... 9 3.2.1 Cutting of Cattails ...................................................................................................................... 9 3.2.2 Pore water Collection ................................................................................................................. 9 3.2.3 Sediment/Plant Tissue Collection ............................................................................................ 10 3.3 Laboratory Procedures .................................................................................................................. 10 3.3.1 Water Analysis .......................................................................................................................... 10 3.3.2 Sediment Analysis..................................................................................................................... 10 3.3.3 Vegetation Analysis .................................................................................................................. 11 4.0 Results and Discussion .......................................................................................................... 11 4.1.0 Effect of Invasive Cattails on Wild Rice .................................................................................... 11 4.1.1 Wild Rice Production ............................................................................................................... 11 4.1.2 Wild Rice Chlorosis and Incidence of Disease ........................................................................ 12 4.1.3 Sediment and Pore water ......................................................................................................... 15 4.4.2 Plant Tissue .............................................................................................................................. 18 4.2 Rule Curve Effect on Cattail Spread ............................................................................................ 21 4.2.1 Water Level Control and Historical Invasion of Cattails ....................................................... 21 4.2.2 Current Situation ...................................................................................................................... 22 4.3 Management Strategy-Cutting Cattails ........................................................................................ 26 4.4 Integration into the IJC water level model ................................................................................... 27 5.0 Conclusions and Future Work ............................................................................................. 28 Acknowledgements ..................................................................................................................... 28 Literature Cited .......................................................................................................................... 29 Appendix A. IJC Presentation……………………………………………………………………………….....33 Appendix B. Water Level Data…………………………………………………………………………...……39 Appendix C. Initial Report……………………………………………………………………………………..40 Appendix D. January 2016 Update……………………………………………………………………………..64 Appendix E. Febuary 2016 Update…………………………………………………………………………….98 2 Abstract The exotic narrowleaf cattail, Typhaangustifolia and the hybrid T. glauca(T. latifolia x T. angustifolia) are known to be extremely successful invasive wetland plant species and were examined for their effect on wild rice in Rainy Lake and as well as methods to control them. Due to their dominance in habitat occupation, the cattails were shown to have displaced large areas of native wild rice stands in Rainy Lake. Rat River Bay in Rainy Lakewas used as a study area to determine effectiveness of mechanical control of cattails and recovery of wild rice. In the fall of 2014, Seine River First Nations (SRFN) conducted trials for cattail removal by cutting cattail culms with a mechanical harvester immediately above the sediment:water interface. The following spring, cattail survival in these cut areaswas negligible. The control mechanism was hypothesized to be a lack of oxygen supply from the culms to the rhizomes during ice cover. Wild rice in the seed bank of the cut areas germinated and renewed the former wild rice stands in terms of area of occurrence. However, total, extractable and pore water results for sediment nutrients, showed that cattails were depleting many macro and micronutrients in the former wild rice areas which may have long-term implications. Of particular importance was the lower nitrogen concentrations causing chlorosis in the wild rice plants growing in the cut cattail locations. If water levels were above average on Rainy Lake, this increase in depth was shown to favour the spread of cattails whereas a rule curve that allowed lower water levels during the growing season would favourwild rice. It was recommended that future studies concentrate on understanding seed bank dynamics for wild rice, the process by which cattails affect wild rice germination, the methods in which sediment nutrient depletion can be corrected and more efficient equipment for cutting cattails. 3 1.0 Introduction A current and major problem for the natural ecosystems of Rainy Lake has been the invasion of exotic cattails, Typha angustifolia, and the hybrid, T. glauca (T. latifolia x T. angustifolia)into the lake’s wild rice stands. These wild rice areas, together with those on Lake of the Woods, form the largest natural stands of wild rice in the world and are of immense historical and cultural importance to the First Nations of this region. Exotic cattails are typical of most invasive species which can dramatically change the environment they invade and become a major threat to biodiversity and ecosystem stability (Ehrenfeld, 2003). Normally, exotics have some overriding advantage to the native species. In the case of these exotic cattails, they can tolerate depths of up to 1.5 m (Grace and Harrison, 1986) versus the native species (T. latifolia) with a depth tolerance of less than 15 cm (Apfelbaum, 1967; Travis et al., 2010). The 1.5 m depth limit of the cattail exotics falls into the same depth tolerance as wild rice and they therefore compete for the same niche. Invasive species, such as cattails, are normally very prolific and form dense mono-specific stands that can completely displace native species particularly if their depth tolerance exceeds the native species (Galatowitsch et al., 1999). They also produce abundant litter and decomposing biomass that can exert less noticeable changes. For example, the large amount of litter produced by Typha angustifolia can limit light, modify soil temperature and even change wetland hydrology (Tuchman et al., 2009). These effects aid in invasion and dominance of the system. Once a wetland is invaded, exotic species act as drivers of change (Tuchman at al. 2009, Vitousek et al., 1997). There are consequences to this shift in species composition. For example, the production within a wetland is dependent on the flux of materials between living and non- living reserves. This biogeochemical process in wetlands depends on microbial, vegetation and fauna which quantify the exchange and transport of elements or compounds within the wetland and the surrounding environment (Reddy et al., 2010). Due to the change in microbial communities, nutrient dynamics and physical differences between species, once plant populations change the wetlands ability to retain or cycle nutrients has changed (Kao et al. 2003).Invasiveness by Typha spp. may also be aided by their allelophathic ability (Ervin and Wetzel, 2003) and have resulted in pronounced expansion and domination in wetlands in Eastern North America (Shih and Finkelstein, 2008). Originally, Typha angustifolia was believed to have arrived on this continent with European settlement (Hotchkiss and Dozier, 1949, Woo and Zedler 2002). Recently Shih and Finkelstein (2008) haven proven through pollen records their presence before the European’s arrival. They 4 were first recorded on the east coast and then advanced through the United Stated and into the great lakes region in the late 19th century (Hotchkiss and Dozier, 1949; Shih and Finkelstein 2008). The herbarium at Lakehead University in Thunder Bay have examples of thespecies collected in northwestern Ontario as early as 1985. According to SRFN councilor, John Kabatay and Chief Tom Johnson, the plant was first noticedin