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Abstract
Presence of the introduced genus Tamarix has been a perplexing problem for decades along rivers of the southwestern States. It is clearly an invasive species occurring along most perennial, ephemeral, and intermittent drainages of the Southwest including rivers, small streams, and normally dry washes. It seems to reach highest densities and form monocultures along waterways with altered flow regimes, but it can also invade unaltered streams and small springs, where it may become the dominant or exclusive woody species. Approximately 150 years after Tamarix was first introduced into the Southwest, it was being reviled as a notorious phreatophyte that was thought to measurably deplete ground and surface water at the expense of native riparian habitat (Chew 2013; Robinson 1952).
Parent Publication
Keywords
riparian,
ecosystem,
ecology,
riparian processes,
riparian losses,
restoration,
aquatic,
arid,
semiarid,
upland,
freshwater,
groundwater,
hydrology,
watershed,
tamarisk,
tamarisk leaf beetles (Diorhabda spp)
Citation
Carothers, Steven W.; Johnson, R. Roy; Kingsley, Kenneth J. 2020. A naturalized riparian ecosystem: Consequences of Tamarisk leaf beetle (Diorhabda spp.) biocontrol [Chapter 2]. In: Carothers, Steven W.; Johnson, R. Roy; Finch, Deborah M.; Kingsley, Kenneth J.; Hamre, Robert H., tech. eds. Riparian research and management: Past, present, future. Volume 2. Gen. Tech. Rep. RMRS-GTR-411. Fort Collins, CO: U.S. Department of Agriculture, Forest Service, Rocky Mountain Research Station. p. 18-46.
