Hydrilla Invasive Species

Hydrilla: An Invasive Species Hydrilla verticillata, otherwise known as Hydrilla is an aggressive water weed and is said to be one of the world’s worst invasive aquatic plants. Hydrilla in temperate places around the globe and somehow made its way to the United States. Hydrilla has a special advantage; it grows under lower light conditions than nearly any other species, it only needs about 1% of sunlight. This advantage allows hydrilla to grow underneath other plants and survive greater depths; up to 30 feet. Hydrilla uses it’s ability to operate in low light to begin the process of photosynthesis earlier in the morning than other plants. This allows hydrilla to acquire the carbon dioxide that has entered the water during the night. Hydrilla
Scientists aren’t fully aware of all the impacts, but they have an idea of what they primarily do. For example, in California, hydrilla can decrease the flow of water in canals and ditches up to 85%, which can wreck a population that highly depends on moving large quantities of water. Hydrilla plants can clog and damage dams, power plants, and other water resources. Another example of these menacing plants going to work is that in 1991, an infestation cause a power plant on Lake Moultrie, South Carolina $4 million in power generation, moreover, this infestation also cost $1.2 million in emergency repairs. Heavy infestations can also cost fisherman and other people in boating industries a lot of money because hydrilla decreases fishing stock and economic opportunities. In one report a hydrilla infestation got so bad that it cost the local people by Lake Seminole, Georgia a loss of $13 million per year because tourism decreased. Not only does hydrilla take a toll on the economy, but it also threatens the environment. Hydrilla grows rapidly and shades out other plants, as a result, biodiversity is reduced. Oxygen levels beneath hydrilla fall low at night causing fish to struggle to survive. The great amounts of hydrilla can alter food-web relationships for fish, which can lead to changes in population. Hydrilla can also astonishingly impact bald eagles. The growth of hydrilla promotes the growth of toxic algae that the prey of the bald eagle eats, as a result the bald eagles eat the poisonous prey and die off. Biologists say that about 100 bald eagles have died this way. Some environmental enthusiasts say that hydrilla isn’t as dreadful as people make it seem because it provides shelter to animals, but on the other hand there are other non invasive species that benefit wildlife more than hydrilla