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Ambient ex-situ denitrification in isolated wetlands of Ohio, North Carolina and Florida
Citation:
LANE, C. R., B. C. AUTREY, T. M. JICHA, L. Lehto, C. M. ELONEN, AND L. Siefert. Ambient ex-situ denitrification in isolated wetlands of Ohio, North Carolina and Florida. Presented at 9th INTECOL International Wetlands Conference, Orlando, FL, June 03 - 08, 2012.
Impact/Purpose:
There are three main objectives of the proposed research in isolated wetlands: 1) isolated wetland characterization and conditional assessment; 2) isolated wetlands and landscape nutrient dynamics, including annual and seasonal variation in soil and water parameters; and 3) accuracy assessment and extent determination of isolated wetlands.
Description:
Isolated wetlands are completely surrounded by uplands and typically do not warrant federal protection under the Clean Water Act. Nevertheless they can be found at high densities in certain parts of the US and Canada (e.g., Prairie Pothole Region, Southern and Middle Atlantic Coastal Plains ecoregions). Understanding the ecosystem services, or benefits received by humans for ecosystem processes, performed in isolated wetlands can provide substantive progress toward reestablishing federal protection for some systems. One such ecosystem service is the assimilation of nutrient pollution through denitrification. Wetlands are nown to perform high rates of nitrogen processing due to frequent anaerobic conditions, labile carbon sources, available nitrate-nitrogen, and adaptive microbial communities. In this study we composited six soil subsamples at each of 30 isolated wetlands across Ohio, North Carolina and Florida. Significant differences were found between denitrification rates in Ohio and those in both North Carolina and Florida, but no differences were found between wetlands in North Carolina and Florida. Palustrine emergent marsh and palustrine forested wetlands also did not differ in denitrification rates. Significant correlations were found with soil nitrate concentration, soil carbon to nitrogen ratio, soil total phosphorus concentration, and ambient denitrification enzyme activity. These results suggest that denitrification in isolated wetlands may be a significant nitrogen sink, thereby protection other aquatic systems from nutrient pollutants, though landscape setting and nutrient loading may affect the link between these systems and downstream waters.