Water Hyacinth in China: A Sustainability Science-Based Management Framework

Abstract

The invasion of water hyacinth (Eichhornia crassipes) has resulted in enormous ecological and economic consequences worldwide. Although the spread of this weed in Africa, Australia, and North America has been well documented, its invasion in China is yet to be fully documented. Here we report that since its introduction about seven decades ago, water hyacinth has infested many water bodies across almost half of China's territory, causing a decline of native biodiversity, alteration of ecosystem services, deterioration of aquatic environments, and spread of diseases affecting human health. Water hyacinth infestations have also led to enormous economic losses in China by impeding water flows, paralyzing navigation, and damaging irrigation and hydroelectricity facilities. To effectively control the rampage of water hyacinth in China, we propose a sustainability science-based management framework that explicitly incorporates principles from landscape ecology and Integrated Pest Management. This framework emphasizes multiple-scale long-term monitoring and research, integration among different control techniques, combination of control with utilization, and landscape-level adaptive management. Sustainability science represents a new, transdisciplinary paradigm that integrates scientific research, technological innovation, and socioeconomic development of particular regions. Our proposed management framework is aimed to broaden the currently dominant biological control-centered view in China and to illustrate how sustainability science can be used to guide the research and management of water hyacinth.

Producing Liquid Organic Fertilizer from Water Hyacinth; A Case of Lake Victoria, Kenya

“…It is especially pervasive throughout Southeast Asia, the Southern United States, Central, East and Western Africa and Central America [24], [26]. It is prevalent in tropical and subtropical water bodies where nutrient levels are often high due to agricultural runoff, deforestation and insufficient waste water treatment.…”

Spatial distribution of an invasive plant Spartina alterniflora and its potential as biofuels in China

“…S. alterniflora owns most of the above mentioned traits (Wang et al, 2006), making it a perfect candidate for energy exploitation, from negative to positive. In China, water hyacinth (Eichhornia crassipes), another invasive plant has already been successfully used for energy production (Lu et al, 2007(Lu et al, , 2010. In order to better use S. alterniflora as an energy source, it is quite meaningful to study its spatial distribution and bioenergy potentials.…”

Water Hyacinth (Eichhornia crassipes) Biomass as a Biofuel Feedstock by Enzymatic Hydrolysis

“…In favorable environmental conditions, an individual water hyacinth can produce 140 million daughter plants annually; these plants cover 1.40 km 2 water area with a fresh biomass of 28,000 tons (Lu et al 2007). These aquatic plants deplete dissolved oxygen in the water and jeopardize the health of aquatic animals.…”

“…They also block rivers, drainage system, and water transportation. As an invasive floating plant, it has caused an enormous ecological and economic disaster worldwide (Lu et al 2007;Villamagna and Murphy 2010). In southern China, these plants seriously threaten the aquatic systems of lakes and rivers (Chu et al 2006), and they must be removed every year.…”