Florida's Aquatic Plant Story
DVD Vocabulary: Middle School
An introduction to the benefits of native plants & problems caused by invasive weeds.
Florida's Aquatic Plant StoryDVD Vocabulary: Middle SchoolAn introduction to the benefits of native plants & problems caused by invasive weeds. |
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aquatic weed bioaccumulation biological control food chain | herbicide host specific hydrilla native plant | maintenance control mechanical control water hyacinth water lettuce |
Aquatic weed – a water plant that is growing in a place where it is unwanted.
Bioaccumulate – the concentration of substances in the tissue of a living organism as it ages and eats other organisms that have absorbed the same substances.
Biological control – the use of natural predators to control the growth of plants (or animals). Example: The alligatorweed flea beetle (Agasides hygrophia) was imported from Argentina to help control (eat) alligatorweed, a highly invasive plant in Florida.
Food chain – a community of organisms based on one organism being eaten, in turn, by another. This energy continuum begins with the most simple plant forms (algae) and succeeds up the chain to the largest of animals within that community. (Example: Tiny algal cells are eaten by zooplankton, which are eaten in turn by a shrimp which is then eaten by a fish, which is ultimately eaten by a bird.)
Herbicide - a chemical substance used to kill or inhibit the growth of plants, especially weeds.
Host specific insect - an insect that eats only one species of plant and does not cause harm to other plants.
Hydrilla – an extremely invasive submersed aquatic plant from SE Asia or Africa and introduced to the Florida environment during the 1950s.
Invasive species – a species that is brought in from other places and is not native to a region
Native plant - a plant species that co-evolved within an ecosystem and is important for the stability of other plants and animals within that same system.
Maintenance Control – frequent applications of various control methods to keep weed species at the lowest feasible levels (from Section 369.22, Florida Statues).
Mechanical control – a method of managing aquatic weeds using machines.
Water Hyacinth - a floating water weed from South America that is invasive in Florida; it was introduced to Florida in the late 1880s.
Water lettuce - a floating water weed that is invasive in Florida; it is thought to be from South America and was introduced to Florida during the Spanish colonial period, in the late 1700s.
New terms have come into use since this program was created in 1990: Invasive species – a non-native species that is capable of causing economic or environmental harm. Integrated pest management – applying two or more management tools to control a pest species, and that are compatible with the uses and functions of that ecosystem. |
