Study seeks to answer questions on spartina grass
Monday, November 1, 2004 7:35 AM PST
Printable version
E-mail this articleResearchers set a second wave of drift cards sailing out of Willapa Bay Thursday in a year-long study to predict where spartina grass seeds might drift and start new colonies of the troublesome, non-native grass.
In the first release several weeks ago, about half of the 200 cards that Portland State University researchers let loose in Willapa have been found and reported. Most drifted short distances before landing to the south on the Long Beach Peninsula and north toward Grays Harbor, although one card landed near the Queets River, more than 50 miles north of Willapa Bay.
Spartina is an invasive weed that overruns wildlife habitat and threatens other wildlife and the commercial shellfish industry. It sprouts into dense meadows each spring and dies off in the fall, forming rafts of "wrack" that carry seeds.
"Right now is the time where a lot of the spartina is breaking up in Willapa Bay," said Vanessa Howard, a PSU graduate student working on the project. "That's why we're doing this, to see where things are headed."
The scientists will release cards each month from Willapa Bay and from San Francisco and Humboldt bays in California, which also have spartina infestations.
Mark Sytsma of PSU's Center for Lakes and Reservoirs, said, "I anticipate we're going to learn a lot more as time goes by."
The bright yellow cards are about the size of index cards and made of light wood to mimic the way spartina seeds and plants drift out to sea. Each card is printed with identification numbers and contact information asking anyone who finds it to report the details.
For more information, go to www.clr.pdx.edu/projects/spartina/.
Past Month's Most Commented Stories