Describing California Bay-Delta Communities following Invasion of Water Primrose
Water primrose, Ludwigia spp., is one of the most globally invasive aquatic weeds. The goal of this project is to determine which traits may be leading to marsh mortality after an invasion in California's Bay-Delta. This study is testing hypotheses related to growth strategy, allelopathy, and factors related to marsh community structure and biodiversity. We are also leveraging nearly two decades of airborne imaging spectroscopy to identify and map the marshes most vulnerable to loss and quantify the spatial trajectory of marsh loss during the past 15 years. These libraries are metabarcoding libraries, created for the purpose of describing and comparing animal, fungal, microbial, and plant communities within invaded delta areas.