<p> Invasive tamarisk has many impacts in freshwater systems including increasing soil salinity, decreasing water content, and causing a shift in food web structure. Tamarisk species originally introduced to the US have hybridized and have been documented invading salt marsh systems in San Diego County, California. The main goals of this study were to determine the impacts of tamarisk within a salt marsh and among genetic types of tamarisk. Amplified Fragment Length Polymorphism was used to determine genetic identity of each individual salt-marsh invading tamarisk. Abiotic impacts depended on microhabitat, as did tamarisk tree morphology, and infauna community composition. Tamarisk altered abiotic factors in the upland and upstream microhabitats and altered infauna community composition in the marsh microhabitat. 17.8% of trees were hybrids of <i> T. ramosissima</i> x <i>T. chinensis.</i> The remainder were pure <i>T. chinensis.</i> Tamarisk genetic identity did not influence abiotic factors, although invertebrate diversity was lower beneath pure <i> T. chinensis</i> than the hybrid. The tamarisk invasion was not an <i> in-situ</i> hybridization and had the most pervasive impact on the infauna in the marsh microhabitat.</p>
| Identifer | oai:union.ndltd.org:PROQUEST/oai:pqdtoai.proquest.com:1522618 |
| Date | 04 May 2013 |
| Creators | Asef, Tania S. |
| Publisher | California State University, Long Beach |
| Source Sets | ProQuest.com |
| Language | English |
| Detected Language | English |
| Type | thesis |
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