Predicting seed germination in the sediments of Lake Mills after removal of the Glines Canyon Dam on the Elwha River
Project ID: J8W07060006
Federal Agency: National Park Service
Partner Institution: University of Washington
Fiscal Year: 2006
Initial Funding: $12,642
Total Funding: $12,642
Project Type: Research
Project Disciplines: Biological
National Park: Olympic National Park
Principal Investigator: Ewing, Kern
Agreement Technical Representative: Acker, Steven
Abstract: The two dams on the Elwha River on the Olympic Peninsula will be removed in 2009, in an effort to restore native fisheries to the Elwha watershed. Glines Canyon Dam, the upper of the two dams and entirely within Olympic National Park, forms the reservoir Lake Mills. Although many smaller dams have been removed throughout the world, the natural colonization of plant species into the newly exposed sediments is poorly understood. Seed banks are known to play a crucial role influencing the recovery of plant communities in disturbed ecosystems. Identifying seed banks within sediments in Lake Mills, will help predict the presence of native and exotic species, and will indicate the degree to which seed banks can provide an in situ source of desirable species to assist in the natural re-vegetation of the lake’s basin after the draining of the reservoir. This project builds on work begun in 2005 in which sediment samples were collected from Lake Mills and seed banks were assessed by inducing seed germination in the greenhouse. In this project, seeds will be physically extracted from the same samples to gain a more complete measure of seed densities in the sediments. This project will also determine whether there is a seasonal pulse in the seed bank by repeated collection of sediments from one location in Lake Mills during fall, winter, and spring and induction of seed germination in the greenhouse. Finally, this study will investigate whether the physical characteristics of reservoir sediments, when dry or when moist, inhibit germination of native plant species. These studies will provide essential information to the restoration effort and to our understanding of natural seed recruitment in a newly exposed lake basin.
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