Conservationists in B.C. are now using a mapping app to eradicate spartina, an invasive grass species that if left unchecked could transform local salt marsh ecosystems and threaten flooding of nearby coastal communities.
Native to Europe and the east coast of North America, the salt marsh-dwelling plant also known as spartina was first discovered in the province in 2003 growing in the mud flats of Delta. Since then, three cordgrass species — spartina anglica, densiflora and patens — have grown to cover hundreds of hectares of intertidal marshland across Metro Vancouver, one of the continent’s most important stop-over sites for migrating waterfowl.
Salt marshes are also particularly good at sucking up large quantities of carbon dioxide from the atmosphere. When the native plants of a salt marsh die, they get buried in the muck; their carbon-filled roots and stems lock into the muddy layers. Much of what would disappear on the mud flats is rarely perceived by humans. Spartina crowds out a naturally occurring biofilm vital to the health of Western sandpipers. In other cases, they crowd out native plants, or invertebrates like mud worms and clams that other migrating birds count on to keep going.
Habitat-transforming grass? There's an app for that The Fraser delta isn’t the only place spartina has landed as an invasive species. It now spans from San Francisco Bay to Comox on Vancouver Island. As spartina’s range grew, Christensen said efforts to eradicate the plant have accelerated. But this summer, a new digital application is changing how they chart spartina's spread — and if Christensen has his way — eventual eradication.
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