Evaluation of a wetland classification system devised for management in a region with a high cover of peatlands: an example from the Cook Inlet Basin, Alaska

Abstract

Several wetland classification schemes are now commonly used to describe wetlands in the contiguous United States to meet local, regional, and national regulatory requirements. However, these established systems have proven to be insufficient to meet the needs of land managers in Alaska. The wetlands of this northern region are predominantly peatlands, which are not adequately treated by the nationally-used systems, which have few, if any, peatland classes. A new system was therefore devised to classify wetlands in the rapidly urbanizing Cook Inlet Basin of southcentral Alaska, USA. The Cook Inlet Classification (CIC) is based on seven geomorphic and six hydrologic components that incorporate the environmental gradients responsible for the primary sources of variation in peatland ecosystems. The geomorphic and hydrologic components have the added advantage of being detectable on remote sensing imagery, which facilitates regional mapping across large tracts of inaccessible terrain. Three different quantitative measures were used to evaluate the robustness and performance of the CIC classes relative to that of other commonly used systems in the contiguous United States. The high within-group similarity of the classes identified by the CIC was clearly superior to that of the other systems, demonstrating the need for improved wetland classification systems specifically devised for regions with a high cover of peatlands.

Catchment-scale alder cover controls nitrogen fixation in boreal headwater streams

“…Wetlands cover much of the region and some, but not all, of these wetlands are large peatlands, dominated by Sphagnum spp. and dwarf birch (Betula nana) (Gracz and Glaser 2016).…”

Extracting Information on Wetlands in Northeast China Based on Time Series FY3/MERSI Data

“…Wetlands are among the most biodiverse ecological landscapes in nature, forming major ecosystems worldwide [1,2]. At present, global environmental change is accelerating, with unprecedented modifications to land use and land cover [3][4][5], which inevitably will be reflected in changes in the structure and function of wetland landscape elements. As human activities affecting wetlands expand, tracking changes in wetlands is becoming more important [6].…”