Report: “Spartina townsendii Spread East Frisian Coast (1949)”
Description
In 1948, a botanical mapping of the East Frisian coast was carried out by the Norderney Research Centre, in which the propagation of the Spartina townsendii planted twenty years earlier was to be observed. The investigation continued to serve the objective of helping to clarify the controversial importance of Spartina in coastal protection and land extraction.
The botanical images of the coastal area between Knock and Bensersiel (1948) resulted in the following results:
1. The decline in Spartina plants on the East Frisian coast initially survived only a few specimens (312 =1.7 %). However, these plants have grown almost explosively since 1932 and now form a meadow of almost 258 ha in the Leybucht and at Neßmersiel a meadow of 26 ha. However, the entire area intersected by Spartina in this coastal section is almost 1 000 ha, i.e. slightly less than half of the total foreland of the dike, including the source zone.
2. Spartina townsendii is worthless on the East Frisian coast for land extraction as it thrives almost only in the zone where the classic land-winners Queller (Salicornia stricta) and Andel (Puccinellia maritima) grow. Spartina has a rather damaging effect on land reclamation, because it provides a soil covered by the aqueous slurry porridge and thus prevents the faster landing with good soil ventilation through the Andelwiese.
3. Spartina, where it occurs in larger horsts and stocks, is very resistant to demolition due to deep roots.
4. Spartina cannot grow even at low flooding heights (< 1.0 m) due to the generally higher current velocities and, above all, the ice gang.
5. Spartina has only one effective competitor among the native foreland plants, which can withhold them in favorable locations: Aster tripolium. In the Leybucht, for example, a special mixed society is formed, the Spartinetum townsendii asteretosum.
6. Spartina has penetrated in the vents far into the old Heller — sometimes up to the dyke’s foot — and has destroyed the lower part of the former Andelwiese, which is now occupied by pure Spartina eggs (Spartinetum townsendii typicum).
7. The future land recovery practice must involve Spartina in all plans, as it is impossible to eradicate the sludge grass.
8. In the future, the ecology of a foreign plant to be inserted into an existing ecosystem must be studied with greater care than before.
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Tags
- spartina-townsendii-ausbreitung-nlwkn-schlickgras
- knock-bensersiel