Water hyacinth, also known as Eichhornia crassipes, is an aquatic plant. It is considered one of the worst weeds, mostly in the tropics and subtropics, and is classified as an Invasive Alien Species (IAS) in Sri Lanka. Despite numerous attempts to remove the species, Eichhornia continues to spread widely, posing a serious threat to aquatic biota in many inland water systems. The study would look into using salinity as a method to control the species. Experiments were set up to explore the species' growth as well as the function of salinity in the species' growth and survival. Salinity tests were set up using various salinity levels of 1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7, 10, 15, and 20 ppt. Growth experiments were conducted by evaluating the growth of the species in terms of leaf output in fresh water tanks for a period of three months. The zero-salinity water served as the control treatment. Over the course of 16 days, two plants were placed in each dish and observed.
The number of leaves rises over time, reaching a maximum of 40 days. From 55 days onwards, it showed a sharp decrease in leaf output. After 40 days, the leaves that had been created began to decay. The experiment revealed that E. crassipes can survive in 0 ppt saline water for the duration of the trial, with the percentage of green shoots appearing to be 100%. After four days of experimentation at a salinity level of 7 ppt, the shoots became brown and died. With increasing salinity, the plants demonstrated a gradual drop in the development of green shoots between 0 and 6 ppt. Although salinity might be used to manage water hyacinth, its practical application in bigger bodies of water would be difficult.Author(S) Details
T. Mathiventhan
Department of Botany, Faculty of Science, Eastern University, Sri Lanka.
T. Jayasingam
Department of Botany, Faculty of Science, Eastern University, Sri Lanka.
View Book:- https://stm.bookpi.org/RPPSR-V4/article/view/5192
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