The Biology Student Association held a meeting on March 17 in the Science building at California State University, Stanislaus.
Dr. Michael Fleming was a guest speaker this week from the CSU Stanislaus department of Biological Sciences. He gave a presentation on his research he conducted from 2002 to 2005 on plants, specifically “Spartina.”
Dr. Fleming taught at a high school in Oregon, and started his research on Spartina in Portland.  He began his Ph.D program there as well, where he worked on a live volcano.
“Spartina falls under a ‘dangerous species’ category,” Dr. Fleming said. ”Invasive species pose threats to native ecosystems and costs billions of dollars each year. In the USA alone, damage is $38 billion. Additional cost produce loss in agriculture and forestry and reduced recreation and tourism.”
Dr. Fleming then showed biology students what a healthy marsh looks like compared to an unhealthy marsh. A healthy salt marsh has gentle slopes, navy peds, many plant species, healthy shellfish and populations.
He also had a study site where he and associates sprayed the plant species to see if it was effective. He showed students a time period of spraying results and had a control group. Dr. Fleming concluded after July that the treatment is not effective.
Today, Spartina is still a problem- especially to coastal regions like Washington, Oregon and California. California has many outbreaks of Spartina in the Bay Area.