Hi,
This is a really good idea for a science project. There are many possible project that you can do to study the problem of water hyacinths.
Here is some background information on this topic with some external links.
http://www.all-science-fair-projects.co ... Eichhornia
Here is some background information on controlling water hyacinth growth:
http://practicalaction.org/practicalans ... cts_id=189
Here is an interesting study from Univ of Florida using geese to control water hyacinth growth. Please note that in the initial study, the geese who got to eat water hyacinths in addition to their normal diet gained more weight.
http://edis.ifas.ufl.edu/ps023
Please note that if you do a project that includes vertebrate animals, you will need to get permission in advance. Let me know if you need more information on this.
This Wikipedia article is pretty good and includes some scientific references, which you can use for additional background information.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Water_hyacinth
For you project, you might want to investigate a method for controlling water hyacinth growth. For this you will need to measure plant growth and here information on the science buddies website for doing this:
https://www.sciencebuddies.org/science- ... owth.shtml
I recommend that you do as much background reading as possible before selecting your project. Ideally, you will want to read about everything that has been done on this topic, and then design an experiment that will provide new information. Reading all of the scientific references that you can find will give you the best ideas for your project and it will help you make an important contribution in solving this important problem.
Donna Hardy
