Ecological control and integral utilization of Spartina alterniflora

Abstract Spartina alterniflora Loisel (S. alterniflora) is native to the Atlantic and Gulf Coasts of North America and was introduced to China in 1979. Over the years, S. alterniflora played an important role in protecting coastal banks, accelerating sediment deposition, improving local economies, and alleviating natural disasters. As an exotic species, S. alterniflora has a very strong capability of propagation, which has caused some negative effects, such as occupying ecological niches of some seashells and blocking harbors by fast sediment deposition. As a result, ecological control of S. alterniflora in some areas has drawn wide attention from biologists and ecologists in China and abroad. For this paper, we studied the technology of topography and hydrology modification to substitute S. alterniflora with P. asutralis and reported our results in a project applying this technology. Furthermore, we studied various ways to make use of biomass of S. alterniflora and found that such ways were a good alternative to ecological control of S. alterniflora.

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