New study counts the environmental cost of managing Japanese knotweed


Date:
March 17, 2023
Source:
Swansea University
Summary:
New research has looked at the long-term environmental impact of
different methods to control Japanese knotweed. Different ways
of trying to control the invasive species have developed over the
years but now, as sustainability becomes increasingly important,
understanding the effect of these management methods is vital.This
new study examines at the entire life cycle and long-term impacts
of different management approaches.


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FULL STORY ==========================================================================
New Swansea University research has looked at the long-term environmental impact of different methods to control Japanese knotweed.


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The invasive species has been calculated to cost more than -L-165 million
to manage every year in the UK alone. Its presence can blight property purchases for households across the country.

This has led to the development of different ways of trying to control
it but with sustainability becoming increasingly important, understanding
the effect of these management methods is vital.

A new study, led by biosciences lecturer Dr Sophie Hocking and looking
at the entire life cycle and long term impacts of different management approaches, has just been published in online journal Scientific Reports.

Dr Hocking said: "In light of the current climate emergency and
biodiversity crisis, invasive species management and sustainability have
never been so important.

"Both of these are intrinsically linked -- we know that invasive species
can cause substantial negative ecological, social and economic impacts,
and the way we manage these species should mitigate against this in a sustainable way to ensure we are not doing more harm than good.

"Although there has been more research into how we can best manage the
plant, little is known about how sustainable these approaches are." This
study follows on from previous research which has put Swansea University
at the forefront of Japanese knotweed expertise and understanding.

Back in 2012 Professor Dan Eastwood and Dr Dan Jones launched the world's largest knotweed control field trial which tested the main physical,
chemical and integrated methods of controlling the species. The research
has been undertaken in close partnership with Complete Weed Control's
Managing Director Ian Graham and Advanced Invasives, a spinout company,
headed by Dr Jones.

This field study provided valuable information for Dr Hocking's
work. Using a life cycle assessment (LCA) -- a methodology for assessing environmental impacts associated with all the stages of the life cycle
of a commercial process -- to find out the relative environmental impacts
of a range of chemical and physiochemical knotweed management methods.

The researchers went beyond a focus on the use and end-of life if these
methods and assessed the environmental impacts of different management
methods including the production of materials and herbicides required
to achieve knotweed control; something that is often overlooked when
we evaluate sustainability. For the study, the team selected methods
commonly used for knotweed management and used real-world data on time consumption, amount of materials used and economic costs to evaluate
their relative environmental impacts.

Of the methods tested, they found that the simplest approach --
glyphosate- based foliar spray control methods -- used the least
materials, had the lowest environmental impacts, the lowest economic
costs and is, therefore, the most sustainable approach to tackle knotweed management. The findings are of significance to those working with or are affected by the presence of Japanese knotweed on their land Dr Hocking
added: "Currently there is a big conversation around the sustainability
of herbicides and the ecological and human-health impacts of this. Social perceptions of the ways we manage invasive plants are really important,
but we need our understanding of sustainability to be rooted in empirical evidence.

"We hope that this research will contribute to our wider understanding of
the sustainability of different approaches in invasive plant management
and help to inform current knotweed management practice."
* RELATED_TOPICS
o Plants_&_Animals
# Nature # Invasive_Species # Endangered_Plants #
Endangered_Animals
o Earth_&_Climate
# Sustainability # Environmental_Issues #
Environmental_Awareness # Exotic_Species
* RELATED_TERMS
o Agroecology o Environmental_impact_assessment o
Sustainable_land_management o Climate_engineering o
Invasive_species o Urban_planning o Biology o Agronomy

========================================================================== Story Source: Materials provided by Swansea_University. Note: Content
may be edited for style and length.


========================================================================== Journal Reference:
1. Sophie Hocking, Trisha Toop, Daniel Jones, Ian Graham, Daniel
Eastwood.

Assessing the relative impacts and economic costs of Japanese
knotweed management methods. Scientific Reports, 2023; 13 (1) DOI:
10.1038/s41598- 023-30366-9 ==========================================================================

Link to news story: https://www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2023/03/230317144958.htm

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