Bernard Williams
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This photo was taken Monday January 2nd on UNCW's cleared trail behind The Landing. The subject of this photo is the soil mound. This mound was created when the trail was cleared and now serves as a habitat for several species of plants. Of these plants I was able to identify a species of knotweed (genus Polygonum). I also identified dead crabgrass (Digitaria) which seemed to originally cover the mound.In this case the knotweed is able to act as an invasive species upon the crabgrass's habitat because of it's niche. This is better explained using Hutchinson's theory of an N-Dimensional Hypervolume. While both organisms thrive in the high moisture conditions of the mound, knotweed is able to survive in colder winter temperatures. While temperatures remain colder,
the knotweed population will continue to multiply. When spring comes and crabgrass seeds are no longer dormant, crabgrass's realized niche will be lowered to eliminate competition with the knotweed.
FullSizeRender
This photo was taken Monday January 2nd on UNCW's cleared trail behind The Landing. The subject of this photo is the soil mound. This mound was created when the trail was cleared and now serves as a habitat for several species of plants. Of these plants I was able to identify a species of knotweed (genus Polygonum). I also identified dead crabgrass (Digitaria) which seemed to originally cover the mound.In this case the knotweed is able to act as an invasive species upon the crabgrass's habitat because of it's niche. This is better explained using Hutchinson's theory of an N-Dimensional Hypervolume. While both organisms thrive in the high moisture conditions of the mound, knotweed is able to survive in colder winter temperatures. While temperatures remain colder,
the knotweed population will continue to multiply. When spring comes and crabgrass seeds are no longer dormant, crabgrass's realized niche will be lowered to eliminate competition with the knotweed.