Wetland restoration following Phragmites control: informed by seedling performance of alkali bulrush

Seedling performance of alkali bulrush sourced from different sites: implications for revegetation in Great Salt Lake wetlands. Bulrush (Schoenoplectus and Bolboschoenus species) are significant in Utah wetlands as they provide critical habitat for millions of migratory birds that utilize the Great Salt Lake. Many agencies in Utah are working to control Phragmites, an invasive species that has outcompeted and replaced bulrushes. Part of this process requires the introduction of native species into wetlands to restore wetland habitat, following Phragmites control, by sowing seeds into areas in need of revegetation. There are many potential seed sources from which to acquire seeds; it is unknown how well plants sourced from various sites will vary in performance. In a greenhouse study, we have grown alkali bulrush (Bolboschoenus maritimus) seedlings from five geographically-distant wetland sites across the Intermountain West. We harvested seedlings and evaluated emergence timing, emergence proportion as well as the following seedling traits critical to restoration outcomes: stem diameter, root length, number of shoots, height of seedlings, and biomass production, at three different time points. Data were analyzed using a one-way ANOVA with seed source as the fixed effect with 5 levels. We found that the Bear Lake seed source had lower seedling emergence than seeds sourced from Clear Lake and Sterling. There were no significant differences among the seed sources for the seedling performance metrics in the first and third harvests. At the second harvest, Bear Lake seed source had poorer performance overall. Analysis would suggest avoiding using Bear Lake seed for wetland managers. However, there may be no preference between using seeds from the remaining four sites

Floating and Submerged Plants of Utah: Pocket Field Guide

This is a field guide to identifying floating and submerged plants of Utah. We include a page for each species and also a dichotomous key at the end for the pondweeds. Submerged and floating plant species play critical roles in aquatic ecosystems. They provide habitat to aquatic organisms, improve water clarity by trapping sediment, and absorb excess nutrients from the water column, among other vital services. However, they have been threatened and degraded by pollution, land conversion, and introductions of harmful species. Identifying native and non-native plants is an important component of tackling this degradation and promoting the conservation and restoration of aquatic plant communities

Everybody’s Publishing but Me! How a Writing Group Can Help Actualize Your Publishing Dreams

On any given day, one can go to the Chronicle of Higher Education and see a new article on the trials and tribulations of publishing and seeking tenure in academia. Anxiety inducing titles such as “Measuring Up” and “The Stress of Academic Publishing” reaffirm the notion that one must publish, or perish. While this type of pressure pushes some to success, for others, it makes it harder to write. However, you don’t have to travel this writing and publishing road alone. Inspired by the book Every Other Thursday: Stories and Strategies from Successful Women Scientists by Ellen Daniell, a small group of women academics and professionals in Logan, Utah found their support team through the creation of a writing group in Spring 2009

Systems Modeling to Improve the Hydro-Ecological Performance of Diked Wetlands

Water scarcity and invasive vegetation threaten arid-region wetlands and wetland managers seek ways to enhance wetland ecosystem services with limited water, labor, and financial resources. While prior systems modeling efforts have focused on water management to improve flow-based ecosystem and habitat objectives, here we consider water allocation and invasive vegetation management that jointly target the concurrent hydrologic and vegetation habitat needs of priority wetland bird species. We formulate a composite weighted usable area for wetlands (WU) objective function that represents the wetland surface area that provides suitable water level and vegetation cover conditions for priority bird species. Maximizing the WU is subject to constraints such as water balance, hydraulic infrastructure capacity, invasive vegetation growth and control, and a limited financial budget to control vegetation. We apply the model at the Bear River Migratory Bird Refuge on the Great Salt Lake, Utah, compare model-recommended management actions to past Refuge water and vegetation control activities, and find that managers can almost double the area of suitable habitat by more dynamically managing water levels and managing invasive vegetation in August at the beginning of the window for control operations. Scenario and sensitivity analyses show the importance to jointly consider hydrology and vegetation system components rather than only the hydrological component

Soils of Great Salt Lake Wetlands: Hydric Indicators and Common Features

Using information in this booklet, the physical features of a wetland soil can be observed to tell a story about a soil’s history, its characteristics, the wetland in which it is found, and the plant life it supports. Hydric soils have unique characteristics, due to anaerobic conditions, that distinguish them from other soil types. Great Salt Lake wetland soils display many of these hydric characteristics. The many functions that Great Salt Lake wetland soils provide, from transforming nutrients, to filtering toxins and accumulating loose sediments, make them an important resource worth protecting. The diversity of soil types and soil features in this re-gion both support and reflect the dynamic diversity of plants and animals that visitors admire

Abiotic and Landscape Factors Constrain Restoration Outcomes Across Spatial Scales of a Widespread Invasive Plant

The natural recolonization of native plant communities following invasive species management is notoriously challenging to predict, since outcomes can be contingent on a variety of factors including management decisions, abiotic factors, and landscape setting. The spatial scale at which the treatment is applied can also impact management outcomes, potentially influencing plant assembly processes and treatment success. Understanding the relative importance of each of these factors for plant community assembly can help managers prioritize patches where specific treatments are likely to be most successful. Here, using effects size analyses, we evaluate plant community responses following four invasive Phragmites australis management treatments (1: fall glyphosate herbicide spray, 2: summer glyphosate herbicide spray, 3: summer imazapyr herbicide spray, 4: untreated control) applied at two patch scales (12,000 m2 and 1,000 m2) and monitored for 5 years. Using variation partitioning, we then evaluated the independent and shared influence of patch scale, treatment type, abiotic factors, and landscape factors on plant community outcomes following herbicide treatments. We found that Phragmites reinvaded more quickly in large patches, particularly following summer herbicide treatments, while native plant cover and richness increased at a greater magnitude in small patches than large. Patch scale, in combination with abiotic and landscape factors, was the most important driver for most plant responses. Compared with the small plots, large patches commonly had deeper and more prolonged flooding, and were in areas with greater hydrologic disturbance in the landscape, factors associated with reduced native plant recruitment and greater Phragmites cover. Small patches were associated with less flooding and landscape disturbance, and more native plants in the surrounding landscape than large patches, factors which promoted higher native plant conservation values and greater native plant cover and richness. Herbicide type and timing accounted for very little of the variation in native plant recovery, emphasizing the greater importance of patch selection for better management outcomes. To maximize the success of treatment programs, practitioners should first manage Phragmites patches adjacent to native plant species and in areas with minimal hydrologic disturbance

Strategies to Secure Water for Great Salt Lake

Great Salt Lake is the largest saline lake in the Western Hemisphere (Wilsey et al. 2017) and plays an important role in Utah’s economy, environment, and ecology (Baxter and Butler 2020; Great Salt Lake Advisory Committee 2021). It has a long history of commercial and recreational activities including mineral production, brine shrimp harvesting, waterfowl hunting, boating, and sightseeing (Utah Department of Natural Resources 2013a, 2013b). The Great Salt Lake ecosystem supports over 10 million birds representing 338 species and acts as an important stopover for migratory birds between North and South America (Great Salt Lake Ecosystem Program; Wilsey et al. 2017). In 1991, Great Salt Lake was designated as a site of “hemispheric importance” by the Western Hemisphere Shorebird Reserve Network (Wilsey et al. 2017)

Sustaining Wetlands to Mitigate Disasters and Protect People

Hurricanes, flooding, droughts. Weather‐related disasters are dominating news cycles and causing widespread destruction, most recently with Typhoon Mangkhut and Hurricane Florence. The US had the most catastrophic hurricane season on record in 2017, with hundreds of billions of dollars in estimated damages. California is experiencing unprecedented tragedies from widespread wildfires and increased vulnerability to storms. Disasters that were once uncommon appear to be the new norm globally, and evidence suggests the frequency and impacts of extreme events will increase further with climate change

Future of Great Salt Lake Survey

The Future of Great Salt Lake Survey was conducted in fall 2022 when state and global attention on Great Salt Lake was ramping up, following record lows of the elevation of lake water levels. In the survey, we asked Utahns their opinions on securing water for Great Salt Lake and focused on strategies that individuals, local communities, and the state of Utah could pursue. When it comes to how water is used and managed in Utah, there are multiple actors and institutions who all make decisions and have authority or ability to take different actions. While the state of Utah can guide growth and development and manages the state’s water resources, local county, city and town governments are primarily responsible for land use planning and delivering water to their residents. We also sought to understand what individuals would commit to do for Great Salt Lake and under what conditions. Understanding Utahns’ support for strategies across the three scales of the state, local communities, and individual is helpful, because actions across all three scales are not always coordinated. With greater emphasis on coordination and cooperation to solve the problem of a drying Great Salt Lake, the results of our survey are intended to help policymakers better implement strategies across the three scales

Wetland Plants of Great Salt Lake, A Guide to Identification, Communities, & Bird Habitat

Wetland Plants of Great Salt Lake: a guide to identification, communities, & bird habitat is a wetland plant identification guide, resulting from collaborative research efforts about Great Salt Lake (GSL) wetland conditions and bird habitat. Dr. Rebekah Downard collected dissertation field data from GSL wetlands during 2012–2015, the majority of which informed this work. Dr. Maureen Frank contributed her guide to GSL wetland vegetation and how to manage native plants as high-quality habitat for birds. The intended purpose in producing this guide was to create an informative source that could assist researchers, land managers, birders, and wetland enthusiasts in identifying, studying, managing, and understanding Great Salt Lake wetland plants, communities, and birds