The Lewisville Aquatic Ecosystem Research Facility (LAERF) in Lewisville, Texas, is an experimental facility that has been conducting research on aquatic plant species for over 20 years. LAERF provides an intermediate-scale research environment to bridge the gap between small-scale laboratory studies and large-scale field tests, offering opportunities to evaluate various spatial and temporal scales in aquatic ecosystem and wetland studies.
Equipped with 53 earthen ponds, 21 lined ponds, 18 flow-through water raceways, mesocosm systems, research greenhouses, and on-site laboratories, LAERF is ideally suited for studying plant competition, life cycles, biological control, chemical control, environmental monitoring, and ecological interactions of nuisance and native plants. The facility supports both basic and applied research, focusing on evaluating aquatic ecosystem management approaches and combining nuisance plant management strategies with methodologies to restore native vegetation communities.
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