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Hot Topics
- Carp
- Vegitation
- Grass Lake Wetland
Restoration Project
- Water Quality Testing and Access to Test Results
- DNR Activities for Lake Improvement
The common carp is the most damaging
invasive fish yet to be introduced to North Americ a
and is widespread
in the southern two-thirds of Minnesota. Ongoing research by professor
Peter Sorensen’s lab is discovering that the common carp currently
makes up most of the biomass of fish in many of Minnesota’s shallow
lakes and wetlands. Its habit of feeding deeply in the bottom—where no
native fish feed—stirs up sediments, uproots valuable aquatic
vegetation, and serves to pump nutrients into the open water. This
species appears to be one of the primary factors driving poor water
quality in many Minnesota lakes.
Invasive Asian carp have made the news because they leap
high out of
the water when disturbed by watercraft. Boaters have been injured when
speeding watercraft struck leaping fish. Asian carp can reach 110
pounds, and they feed voraciously on plankton, eating 40 percent to 60
percent of their body weight each day, which leaves less food for
native fish species.
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Vegitation
Reed Canary Grass 
Although reed canary grass is
planted as a forage crop in some areas, the species poses a significant
threat to the state’s wetlands. Reed canary grass spreads rapidly in
fertile, wet soils forming persistent monocultures in wetlands and
riparian areas. This species poses special problems in restored
wetlands because reed canary grass moves in first and dominates before
others arrive. Reed canary grass is also limiting forest regeneration
across extensive areas of the Upper Mississippi River and Minnesota
River floodplains. Methods to shift forests and wet meadows from reed
canary grass back to diverse communities has eluded natural resource
managers. University of Minnesota researchers are attempting to devise
ways to reverse the invasions which should improve habitat quality
across tens of thousands of acres of wildlife refuges statewide.
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