Team:SZU-China/IHP/bgPage
Background research
Mikania micrantha has caused great damage to the ecosystem of our city. Every year, Shenzhen Government allocates millions of dollars to clear Mikania micrantha, but this still does not prevent the expansion of it. However, there is very little information on Mikania micrantha on the Internet. Many people don’t even realize this small piece of rusty green on the greenbelt actually is one of the 100 most dangerous invasive species in the world and it is causing ecological disasters. Because of this, we decided to conduct a field survey across Shenzhen to investigate the harm of Mikania micrantha and we will concentrate our investigation into a documentary to remind the public of the harm of Mikania micrantha and invasive species.
In our investigation, we were surprised to find that the situation of Mikania micrantha in Shenzhen was far worse than we thought. In Shenzhen, Mikania micrantha can be found in almost every green area.
We found a large number of Mikania micrantha on the orchard of Shenzhen University. This annoying creature enwind the lychee trees in the orchard, cover their canopies and almost overwhelm the lychee trees. The local fruit farmer said: Mikania micrantha seriously affected our harvest.
Fig 1. Orchard is occupied by Mikania micrantha
We went to the Neilingding Island Nature Reserve for field research and documentary. Neilingding Island Nature Reserve Located on the inner bank of the Pearl River Estuary in the west of Shenzhen, it is one of the smallest national nature reserves in China. The island has a well-preserved subtropical island jungle ecosystem with many rare protected animals and plants.
Fig 2. The seashore of Neilingding island
Fig 3. Baby macaque on the island
About the 1980s, Mikania micrantha invaded Neilingding Island and quickly ravaged it, destroyed the original harmonious ecological environment on the island. A large number of Mikania micrantha on the island almost constitutes an ocean of it, only a few plants are spared from the effect of Mikania micrantha. Although the reserve has invested a lot of resources to control Mikania micrantha, the infested area of Mikania micrantha has been reduced, but it is obvious that the invasion of Mikania micrantha has caused irreversible environmental damage to Neilingding Island.
Fig 4. Grass is covered by Mikania micrantha
Fig 5. Entangled plantain on the island
There are many macaques living on Neilingding Island. They feed on the island's native bananas, lychees, longan and other fruits. However, after the invasion of Mikania micrantha, the diversity of plants on the island was destroyed, and the food sources of macaques were also reduced. Today, protected areas have to feed their macaques regularly to maintain their basic needs.
Fig 6. Baby macaque is dying
We collected some plant samples on this closed island and analyzed the common companion plants of Mikania micrantha for later specific testing and simulation experiment. After returning to downtown, we went to Zhongshan Park, the oldest park in Shenzhen. We found that a forest of Mikania micrantha just lying on the hill where is only a few steps from the park management office. Occupied the playground, grasp the centuries-old banyan tree, continuous Mikania micrantha almost turned Zhongshan Park into Mikania Park. Not only that, Mikania micrantha can be even found on the reefs beneath the seaside boulevard of the Shenzhen Bay Park. The municipal park should have been the cleanest and the most unlikely place to grow such weeds of Mikania micrantha, but what we have seen completely overturns this point. Municipal park in the city is more or less parasitic by Mikania micrantha and citizens even don’t know what Mikania micrantha looks like. In order to let more people to figure out what is Mikania micrantha, we decided to develop an applet which can identify the Mikania micrantha via image recognition.
Fig 7. Shooting in Zhongshan Park
Fig 8. Mikania micrantha on the seaside promenade
In the Meilin Reservoir and the Fairylake Botanical Garden, tons of Mikania micrantha covered steep slopes or shallow swales. These areas are in the place where they can be seen, but inaccessible for human being. We found that Mikania micrantha in Shenzhen is more likely to live in these places than in green belts or open areas. Perhaps it is because no methods by now can eliminate Mikania micrantha on such terrains. This unexpected discovery enlightened the idea of using flexible drones to apply our product on Mikania micrantha.
