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By: Tracy

Brazilian Water Weed

Invasive Species

WHAT ARE BRAZILIAN WATER WEEDS?

Brazilian water weeds are an invasive aquatic plant with densely packed leaves. You might be able to recognize them from your aquatic fish tanks.

Appearance:

- Generally bright green

- Can grow to be 3-5 meters long

- Short inter-nodes that give the very leafy appearance

- Similar appearance to hydrilla's

- Slightly serrated

- Leaves about 1/4 inch wide and 1 inch long

Habitat

Brazilian Water-weeds are commonly found in warmer climate conditions but they are capable of surviving winter climates in some regions/locations

Frequently found in:

- Freshwater, wetlands

- Shallow lakes, (slow flowing) streams, ponds, ditches

- Generally found in drifting or rooted at the bottom of the mud

- Depths of the water or floating and drifting away

Native Range: South America, the Central Region of Brazil, the coast of Argentina, and the coast of Uruguay

BACKGROUND INFORMATION

Twice a year, this exotic plant produces small white flowers, first in the spring and then in the fall. These flowers grow until they reach the surface of the water were then they form to be like dense mats, they can cover hundreds of acres of land.

What Is The Problem?

The Problem

These water weeds can grow at a rapid pace and quickly form dense mats on the surface of waters. If there is an Over-crowd of water weeds, they can trap and block off many aspects of the environment.

Why Might Over Crowding Be A Problem, And How Does It Impact Our Environment And Society?

Water Systems: Overcrowding of water weeds could lead to

- restrict the water movement in the system (blockage of flowing)

Environmental Impacts:

- Increase sediments

- crowd out native plant species

- reduce oxygen concentrations (blockage of sunlight to other plants that produce oxygen)

- lack of sunlight causing eutrophication (nutrient overload of decaying plants)

- reducing habitat quality (changing wildlife habitats for ex. fish populations)

Recreational:

- Transportation of humans and animals from place to place

- restricted human activities like boating, fishing and swimming

Algae Bloom

Brazilian Water-weed Bloom?

You may have heard of the term algal bloom........

Algae bloom is the process when eutrophication in a certain body of water has an imbalance amount of nutrients. Plants uptake the extra nutrients and block natural resources from other species.

Humans are the cause of this because agriculture uses a lot of fertilizer and surface run-off affects the nutrient cycle by bringing extra fertilizer.

This can happen to the Brazilian Water-weeds when they overpopulate they submerge all the species and kill them off, bacteria from the dead creatures use oxygen during decomposition so, therefore, the oxygen levels begin to drop. These Brazilian water-weeds will increase the speed of plants decaying, therefore the speed of algal blooms will amplify.

HOW DO THEY IMPACT CANADA?

The reproduction of water-weeds is growing fast and large strands can already be seen across Canada. If a strand from the water-weed is broken off, the separated root can easily create new shoots in developing regions. Water-weeds are being transported and washed up in different regions of Canada.

Cultural

Aboriginal Culture

To help our cultural communities we must update the environmental and knowledge for communities, to develop and respond to manage plans for our future on invasive plants.

Many aboriginal communities are moving from the Indian Act because of land claims, invasive plants are taking over the Indian Reserved land and traditional territory. Invasive spices also take away clean fresh water.

Ktunaxa is a small community within the Tobacco Plains Reserve, it is approximately 4,322 hectors of precious land. These areas are used for purposes like hunting, fishing, harvesting, and cultural activities.

Ontario

What Is Ontario Doing?

The Invasive Species act was created in 2015 to prevent Brazilian Water-weeds from entering the province. These unwanted invaders are now prohibited in Ontario. it is also illegal to sell and trade these species.

The public can call and speak with experts and members of The Invasive Species Awareness Program Hotline, they will assist anyone in need of valuable information about this topic, resources and/or public concerns of these sightings.

Hotline: 1-800-563-7711

Lending a Hand

- Do not dump aquatic tanks into waters

most people that own fish tanks will most likely encounter these water weeds. If they enter the water system, they can rapidly reproduce and spread.

- Inspect all boat motors, trailers, and fishing gear after each use.

Before moving to a new waterbody, residents should remove all plants, debris and mud.

- Try avoiding invaded areas, reduce the speed of travelling.

Entering infected areas at a high speed could lead to boats/motors breaking off small pieces of water-weeds, causing spreading where new plants will grow from small fragments.

If It Gets Worse

What Could Happen To Our Planet If This Issue Is Not Solved

If this invasive species issue is not solved in time we could lose all our precious lakes and rivers

IISD (The International Institute for Sustainable Development) has stated that in 2011, Lake Erie's has settled the record for the most algal bloom. Covering one-filth (5,000 square kilometres) of its water surface. Beaches across the globe are already being closed due to unhealthy waters/environment.

Climate change is already happening and this issue will only increase the environmental hazards in Canada.

These species destroy habitats, quality of water and oxygen and take over the natural environment of other plants/animals. Our planet could lose so many creatures because of invasive species, so many creatures will go extinct.

Federal Funding's

How Governments Should Help

Canada is not treating this as a national issue.

- governments should provide funding's to combat harmful algal blooms

- provide better protection in agriculture (building barriers to protect our lakes)

- manipulating lakes by adding amounts of carbon, nitrogen and phosphorus to balance the species in waters.

Lake Winnipeg has already been affected by these invasive species and hopefully, people provide inspiration in stopping this issue in the future as an environmental policy.

Bibliography

EDDMapS.org, October 02, 2019.Brazilian waterweed, Egeria densa Hydrocharitales: Hydrocharitaceae from https://www.eddmaps.org/ontario/species/subject.cfm?sub=301

Maine Invasive Plants: Brazilian Waterweed, Egeria densa (Frogs-Bit Family) - Cooperative Extension Publications - University of Maine Cooperative Extension from https://extension.umaine.edu/publications/2524e/

IISD, 13 March, 2019. Canada could look to US policy preventing algal blooms from https://www.iisd.org/library/us-policy-algal-blooms

Healing The Great Lakes, Tides Canada https://tidescanada.org/impact-story/lake-erie-alive/

Invasive Plant Council Of BC, March 2011. Aboriginal Community Toolkit for Invasive Plant Management from https://bcinvasives.ca/documents/IPCBC_Aboriginal_Toolkit_2011_FINAL_04_29_WEB.pdf

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