Wetlands across the globe provide extensive ecosystem services. However, many wetlands – especially those surrounded by uplands, often referred to as geographically isolated wetlands (GIWs) – remain poorly protected. Protection and restoration of wetlands frequently requires information on their hydrologic connectivity to other surface waters, and their cumulative watershed‐scale effects. The integration of measurements and models can supply this information. However, the types of measurements and models that should be integrated are dependent on management questions and information compatibility. We summarize the importance of GIWs in watersheds and discuss what wetland connectivity means in both science and management contexts. We then describe the latest tools available to quantify GIW connectivity and explore crucial next steps to enhancing and integrating such tools. These advancements will ensure that appropriate tools are used in GIW decision making and maintaining the important ecosystem services that these wetlands support.

The permeability architecture of the critical zone exerts a major influence on the hydrogeochemistry of the critical zone. Water flow path dynamics drive the spatiotemporal pattern of geochemical evolution and resulting streamflow concentration‐discharge (C‐Q) relation, but these flow paths are complex and difficult to map quantitatively. Here we couple a new integrated flow and particle tracking transport model with a general reversible Transition State Theory style dissolution rate law to explore theoretically how C‐Q relations and concentration in the critical zone respond to decline in saturated hydraulic conductivity (Ks) with soil depth. We do this for a range of flow rates and mineral reaction kinetics. Our results show that for minerals with a high ratio of equilibrium concentration ( Ceq) to intrinsic weathering rate ( Rmax), vertical heterogeneity in Ks enhances the gradient of weathering‐derived solute concentration in the critical zone and strengthens the inverse stream C‐Q relation. As CeqRmax decreases, the spatial distribution of concentration in the critical zone becomes more uniform for a wide range of flow rates, and stream C‐Q relation approaches chemostatic behavior, regardless of the degree of vertical heterogeneity in Ks. These findings suggest that the transport‐controlled mechanisms in the hillslope can lead to chemostatic C‐Q relations in the stream while the hillslope surface reaction‐controlled mechanisms are associated with an inverse stream C‐Q relation. In addition, as CeqRmax decreases, the concentration in the critical zone and stream become less dependent on groundwater age (or transit time).