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EVALUATING CUMULATIVE EFFECTS OF DISTURBANCE ON THE HYDROLOGIC FUNCTION OF BOGS, FENS, AND MIRES
Citation:
Siegel, D. EVALUATING CUMULATIVE EFFECTS OF DISTURBANCE ON THE HYDROLOGIC FUNCTION OF BOGS, FENS, AND MIRES. U.S. Environmental Protection Agency, Washington, D.C., EPA/600/J-88/496 (NTIS PB90186206), 1990.
Description:
Few quantitative studies have been done on the hydrology of fens, bogs and mires, and consequently any predictions of the cumulative impacts of disturbances on their hydrologic functions is extremely difficult. or example, few data are available on the role of bogs and fens with respect to flood desynchronization and shoreline anchoring, whereas recent studies suggest that very small amounts of groundwater discharge are sufficient to modify radially mire surface-water chemistry, and consequently, vegetation communities and their associated surfacewater hydrology. ogs and fens are, in a sense, "hydrobiologic" systems, and any evaluation of cumulative impacts on them will have to 1) consider the complicated interactions, barely understood, among the wetland hydrology, water chemistry, and biota, and 2) place the effect of individual wetland impacts within the context of the cumulative impacts contributed to the watershed from other geomorphic areas and land uses.It is difficult to evaluate the potential cumulative impacts on wetland hydrology because geologic settings of wetlands are often complex and the methods used to measure wetland streamflow, groundwater flow, and evapotranspiration are inexact. his is especially so for bogs, fens, and mires underlain by thick organic soils. hese wetlands, found in the circumboreal areas of North America, Europe and Asia, are major physiographic features in eastern North American, northern Europe and Siberia. heir very scale makes it difficult to quantify the hydrologic function accurately. he hydrology of small bogs and fens found elsewhere is just as poorly understood because of conflicting conceptual models of pertinent hydrologic processes. This paper 1) reviews our current understanding of the hydrologic function of bogs, fens, and mires at different scales and in different physiographic settings, and 2) presents hypotheses on potential cumulative impacts on the. hydrologic function that might occur with multiple disturbances.
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EVALUATING CUMULATIVE EFFECTS OF DISTURBANCE ON THE HYDROLOGIC FUNCTION OF BOGS, FENS, AND MIRES