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Ecology of saltcedar—A plea for research

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Environmental Geology

Abstract

Because of the interdiscriplinary requirements of studies of river-floodplain systems, development of this field in the United States has been slow, and much information needed for watershed and river-basin planning is not available. This is particularly true in the southwestern United States, where study has been further complicated within the last 50 years by the introduction and spread of saltcedar (Tamarix chinensis)which has occurred simultaneously with other independently generated environmental changes.

The spread of saltcedar has been aided both by purposeful planding and by a fortuitous combination of events that has weakened the native ecosystem at the time that seeds of the new species have been made available, events that possibly include changes in such environmental parameters as flood frequency, channel stability, the season of the peak annual flood, water temperature and salinity, and sediment grain size. Careful research is needed to unravel and understand the network of relationships involved.

Phenomena are arranged in chains of necessary sequence. … If we examine any link of the chain, we find it has more than one antecedent and more than one consequent. … Antecedent and consequent relations are therefore not merely linear, but constitute a plexus; and this plexus pervades nature.

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  1. 606 Blackhawk Way, Salt Lake City, Utah

    Benjamin L. Everitt

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  1. Benjamin L. Everitt
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Everitt, B.L. Ecology of saltcedar—A plea for research. Geo 3, 77–84 (1980). https://doi.org/10.1007/BF02473474

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