PARENT SESSION
Poster Session 20: Invasive Species
Wednesday, August 10, 5:00 PM - 6:30 PM, Exhibit Hall 220 A-E, Level 2, Palais des congrès de Montréal
Morphological and seeds characteristics of reed canarygrass (Phalaris arundinacea).
Lanteigne, Melanie*,1, Vasseur, Liette 1, 2, 1 Universite de Moncton, Moncton, New Brunswick, Canada2 Laurentian University, Sudbury, Ontario, Canada
ABSTRACT- Reed canarygrass (Phalaris arundinacea) can be found from native and exotic sources in New-Brunswick. The exotic sources are from Europe, are invasive and can be harmful for aquatic ecosystems. This species has many competitive advantages such as early development in spring and can grow tall in dense clusters, eliminating other vegetation. The aim of this paper is to examine the variation in morphological and seed characteristics within and between three reed canarygrass populations that are presumed exotic. These populations are growing in three different habitats. Twenty plants were randomly collected from each population. These sites are located in Kouchibouguac National Park and could be a threat to the ecological integrity of the park. Traits including plant height and weight and seed weight, were measured in laboratory. The population A signifinatly differedseems to have more seeds, higher height and ear length than populations B and C. Also, the seeds number was significantly positively correlated to height and ear length for the population A and C. The results suggest that population A may be a more competitive introduced genotype than populations B and C The current observations indicated that these populations are all introduced but further genetic analyses should be done to confirm this statement. In this can, the confirmation of this exotic species for Kouchibouguac may have important consequences on the ecological integrity of the park and their conservation management measures that they might have to undertake to eradicate this invasive.
Key words: Invasive species, Seeds, Plant morphology, Population differences