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Wetland interactions in human-modified landscapes: linked hydrological, ecological, and biogeochemical effects
Citation:
Golden, H., G. Evenson, C. Lane, AND D. McLaughlin. Wetland interactions in human-modified landscapes: linked hydrological, ecological, and biogeochemical effects. 2018 Ecological Society of America Annual Meeting, New Orleans, LA, August 05 - 10, 2018.
Impact/Purpose:
Presented at the 2018 ESA Annual Meeting
Description:
It is widely recognized that wetland losses from the landscape are accompanied by diminished watershed-scale hydrological, biogeochemical, and biotic functions. These functional losses are influenced by associated increased or decreased hydrologic interactions among wetlands and between wetlands to other surface waters. Within this context, a challenge remains: the scientific community has historically lacked clear evidence on why and how decreases in watershed functions resulting from wetland losses are linked to modified wetland hydrologic interactions, particularly for wetlands outside of floodplains, i.e., non-floodplain wetlands (NFWs). In this presentation, we synthesize emerging research that asks how the hydrologic interactions of NFWs impart watershed-scale effects – on surface waters, groundwater, biogeochemistry, and ecology. We further discuss a recent case study focused on how wetland loss, based on size distributions and distances to the stream, affects watershed-scale hydrology and water-mediated biogeochemical and biotic functions. Our overall conclusions support that optimizing wetlands on the landscape for a particular function (e.g., maintaining baseflow conditions) may compromise another watershed function (e.g., protecting biodiversity). Therefore, via this study we advance scientific evidence on how GIWs/NFWs affect watershed-scale functions.
