Heart The of the Ma Environmental science students write plan to fight invasive species
rom a distance, the yellow floatthe plant and found it was increasing at a ing heart might seem like the rate close to two acres a year.” perfect ornamental plant for your The plant, which had covered up to pond. But just below the water’s sur53 acres of the lake’s 3,350 acre surface, the lily grows thick roots, develops face area, was resistant to treatments of mattes dense enough to stop a boat’s aquatic glyphosate, commonly known as propeller, and outcompetes native plants. aquatic Roundup, Hickman said. The yellow floating heart plant “There were concerns about treating originated in Eastern Asia and the the aquatic plant with a chemical because Mediterranean, according to the U.S. it had the potential to contaminate a body Geological Survey. This lily is characterof water that could be drinking water,” ized by floating, heart-shaped leaves and Hickman said. “When the glyphosate bright yellow flowers. wasn’t very effective, OSU had to find Oklahoma State University became something else.” concerned with the yellow floating heart Hickman decided to make the yellow when it started growing in Lake Carl floating heart issue a project option in Blackwell, said Karen Hickman, OSU her environmental science capstone Environmental Science Program director. course. In the year-long course, students “Lake Carl spend the fall The students identified the Blackwell is semester reowned and mantreatment. They came up with searching their aged by OSU,” the plan on how and when to topics. During Hickman said. the spring semestreat it. “It provides the ter, students drinking water develop potential Karen Hickman for the university plans of action. campus and recreation, so it’s a vitally Four students were assigned to the important body of water for OSU.” yellow floating heart project: Heath OSU students in the environmental McDonald, Dallas Ladd, Shannon science graduate program were the first Wilson and Luis Martinez. to conduct research on the plant. “There’s not a lot of detailed infor“It was assessed about three to five mation on how to control the yellow years ago,” Hickman said. “They mapped floating heart plants, so we had to reach 58 | COWBOY JOURNAL
out to industry professionals and get their ideas of what they’d do in this situation,” McDonald said. “We did a lot of reading on the OSU library databases.” Lack of information was the team’s biggest challenge, McDonald said. They based their idea on research of similar lily species. Collaboration with departments across campus, such as the environmental science graduate program, gave the student team the opportunity to improve their communications skills, Wilson said. “We had to learn how to communicate with not only our peers, but also with professors and important people who had a lot of influence on the project,” Wilson said. “They were people who had a lot of knowledge about the yellow floating heart. So, learning how to communicate was a big thing.” The undergraduate student team worked with the graduate students to gather data, Wilson said. “They were the ones going out and collecting samples, taking pictures and gathering data,” Wilson said. “So, we had to communicate with them to get the research from them.” The plant in Lake Carl Blackwell was tracked through satellite and drone images to determine surface area coverage, said Andrew Dzialowski, associate
