Is Watercress PEI helping or hurting the sections? The purpose of an upei student is to find out
If you are near a freshwater stream or river in Prince Edward Island this summer, you can see Julie Goodwin, a student of UPEI biology at work.
Goodwin summer trekking watercress, spending an aquatic perennial herb that grows slowly in the body and Food is alsoIts goal is to learn where the watercrackers are growing and how this island is affecting currents.
He said that not much is known about the history of the plant on the island, so his work is helping to create a snapshot for future research. It can also support better decisions about whether the plant should be controlled.
“We have baseline data when it was introduced, but it was a long time ago,” she told the CBC Island morning,
“Since then, no distribution tracking has taken place. We no longer know if it has become more abundant, if it has moved downwards, if it has moved to other streams. And just because it has not been reported anywhere, it does not mean that it is not.”
Till now, he said, a lot is known about the watercress distribution on PEI, such as through civil science through platforms InseparableThe app allows users to share photos and places of plants and animals, helping researchers collect data for scientific and conservation purposes.
“In the world … plant collection and plant identity is a serious issue. It is lacking,” he said.
Profit and shortcomings
Goodwin said that after talking with various watershed groups, he learned that the effect of watercrace varies on the basis of environment.
“Some watershed groups have mentioned that it grows abundantly that it eliminates their streams and causes floods, damaging aquatic houses, and it excludes the original-prostitute native plants,” she said.
“However, other groups have seen it only sitting with banks, catching sediment, even nursery habitat … I have lying in myself in water quickly in the weather.”
Gudwin said that this variation highlights why more data is required to better understand the role of the plant in the island ecosystem.
He said, “The ecosystem has a lot of relationships in which the watercrackers live, and it is actually a project to understand those relationships.”
“We want to understand why it is here, what is the conversation with it, what changes can happen in the ecosystem. And from there, we can then go to collect more data and more data for years and be able to track it. And, in fact, it will move towards proper management and protection.”
How to help islands
Goodwin is hoping that the islanders can help him collect data in this summer. She is asking people to take pictures of any water area and they inform them informally.
He said that people who want to contribute directly can send photos to him too. Email With GPS co-ordinates, which are easily accessible from most smartphones.
The information will be added to his individual monitoring system and will help identify risky areas that may be more likely to accumulate watercraps.
“After all, once we have enough data, and once we study a pilot in this summer, we hope that we can develop a practical monitoring system that the watershed groups can use it to track it every year. And this is not just a summer project,” he said.
