You are here:
HYDROGEOMORPHIC PATTERNS IN COASTAL WETLANDS OF LAKE SUPERIOR: RELATIVE ROLE OF LAKE AND TRIBUTARY
Citation:
Trebitz, A S., J A. Morrice, AND A M. Cotter. HYDROGEOMORPHIC PATTERNS IN COASTAL WETLANDS OF LAKE SUPERIOR: RELATIVE ROLE OF LAKE AND TRIBUTARY. INTERNATIONAL ASSOCIATION OF GREAT LAKES RESEARCH 28:212-227, (2002).
Description:
Despite the documented importance of hydrodynamics in influencing the structure and fundtion of Great Lakes coastal wetlands, systematic assessments of the hydrology of coastal wetlands are lacking. This paper addresses this gap by describing patterns in lake and tributary inputs, water residence times, and mixing regimes for a suite of western lake Superior wetlands that differ in the amount of tributary flow they receive. We show that variability in tributary flows among wetlands and over time is far greater than variability in seiche inputs, and that the amount of tributary flow strongly influences wetland hydrology via effects on water mxing and residence times, seiche size, mouth closures, and fluvial habitat distributions. Wetland seiche amplitudes were reduced in systems with small mouth openings and wetland mouth size was correlated with tributary flow. All wetlands experienced seiche-driven water level oscillations, but there was lake water intrusion onl into those wetlands where tributary outflow was small relative to the seiche inflow. Wetlands in settings exposed to long-shore sediment transport exhibited periodic mouth closures when stream flows werre low. The absolute and relative size of lake and tributary inputs must be explicitly considered in addition to wetland morphology and landscape setting in studies seeking to understand determinants of coastal wetland structure, function and response to anthropogenic stressors.