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Identification of Putative Geographically Isolated Wetlands of the Conterminous United States
Citation:
Lane, C. AND E. D'Amico. Identification of Putative Geographically Isolated Wetlands of the Conterminous United States. JAWRA. American Water Resources Association, Middleburg, VA, , online, (2016).
Impact/Purpose:
Research paper uses a geospatial buffer of 10 m to assess connectivity of wetland systems to lentic and lotic waters across the conterminous US. To be submitted to the Journal of the American Water Resources Association (JAWRA). Research is part of the SSWR Project 3.01, Task G research (FY16-19) on connectivity of wetland systems.
Description:
Geographically isolated wetlands (GIWs) are unique landscape features, defined as wetlands completely surrounded by uplands. Densely occurring in certain parts of the North America, GIWs include wetland types such as Prairie Potholes, Delmarva Ponds, West Coast or California Vernal Pools, Carolina Bays, Pocosins, and Texas Coastal Ponds, amongst others. While common throughout the U.S., there are no data-based estimates of GIW extent, complicating efforts to understand their biogeochemical, hydrological, or habitat functions, as well as creating uncertainty with local, state, or national resource management practices. We use a distance-based measure of connectivity to identify GIWs across the conterminous U.S, applying geospatial buffers to National Hydrography Dataset line and area features and overlaying the National Wetland Inventory data to identify approximately 7.9 million putative GIWs covering almost 6.3 million hectares. This areal value represents approximately 15 % of the freshwater wetlands in the conterminous United States. To analyze the influence of buffer widths on potential geographic isolation of wetlands, we applied larger distance-based measures in certain regions of the U.S., increasing lotic and lentic connectivity from 10-m to 30-m and 300-m with subsequent decreases in the abundance of potential GIWs. This study represents the first geospatially explicit assessment of potential GIW abundance across the conterminous U.S.
