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Native flora and fauna response to removal of the weed Hydrilla verticillata (L.f.) Royle in Lake Tutira

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Abstract

Hydrilla has been in New Zealand since the 1960s and formed major infestations in four lakes in the Hawkes Bay region. Challenges to controlling hydrilla in New Zealand have included a lack of tools and the changing responsibilities of local management agencies. A grass carp field trial was initiated in 1988 in the smallest of the hydrilla infested lakes to assess the feasibility of eradicating hydrilla. After the main hydrilla beds were consumed, regrowth from tubers still occurred for a further 12 years. In 2008, grass carp were released into the remaining three hydrilla-infested lakes in a central government led response to eradicate hydrilla. This paper describes the changes in the flora and fauna in the largest of these lakes, Lake Tutira, following the introduction of grass carp and the removal of the hydrilla weed beds. Annual surveys of aquatic vegetation and macroinvertebrates in the lake from 2008 to 2012 have shown that, following the removal of the hydrilla weed beds by 2010, there was a shift in grass carp grazing to marginal emergent plants, and a general increase in the distribution of the native plant vegetation, although there was some evidence of a decline in charophyte abundance. Macroinvertebrate diversity was maintained although there were changes in the relative abundance of taxa linked to changes in the littoral vegetation.

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Acknowledgments

The authors would like to acknowledge funding from the New Zealand Foundation for Research Science and Technology, the Ministry for Primary Industries (MPI) and the contribution of the Aquatic Plant Group (Paul Champion, Mary de Winton, Aleki Taumoepeau, Rohan Wells and Kerry Bodmin) at NIWA for data collection. Particular thanks also go to Victoria Lamb, Ian Gear and Liz Clayton (MPI), Denise Rendle, Helen Brider, Brian Smith, Aslan Wright-Stow and Aarti Wadhwa (National Institute of Water and Atmospheric Research) and Harold Henderson (AgResearch, statistical consultation). The constructive comments of an anonymous reviewer in improving this manuscript were also much appreciated.

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  1. National Institute of Water and Atmospheric Research, PO Box 11-115, Hillcrest, Hamilton, New Zealand

    D. Hofstra & J. Clayton

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  1. D. Hofstra
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  2. J. Clayton
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Correspondence to D. Hofstra.

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Guest editors: M. T. Ferreira, M. O’Hare, K. Szoszkiewicz & S. Hellsten / Plants in Hydrosystems: From Functional Ecology to Weed Research

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Hofstra, D., Clayton, J. Native flora and fauna response to removal of the weed Hydrilla verticillata (L.f.) Royle in Lake Tutira. Hydrobiologia 737, 297–308 (2014). https://doi.org/10.1007/s10750-014-1865-x

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