Examining Playa Wetland Inundation Conditions for National Wetland Inventory, Soil Survey Geographic Database, and LiDAR Data

Tang, Zhenghong; Gu, Yue; Dai, Zhijun; Li, Yao; LaGrange, Ted; Bishop, Andy; Drahota, Jeff

doi:10.1007/s13157-015-0654-2

Cited by 12 publications

(3 citation statements)

References 28 publications

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“…Playa wetlands in the Rainwater Basin of south‐central Nebraska serve as a critical mid‐continent migration habitat for millions of migratory waterfowl and other wetland dependent wildlife annually during spring and fall migration (LaGrange, ; National Research Council, ; Bishop and Vrtiska, ). There are over 11,760 historical hydric soil footprints across the Rainwater Basin, but the majority of them are no longer functioning as playa wetlands due to the significant hydrology changes from intensive human activities (Tang et al ., , , ). When railroads came to the Rainwater Basin area during the 1870s‐1880s, the area was settled rapidly.…”

Section: Methodsmentioning

confidence: 99%

Using Fly Ash as a Marker to Quantify Culturally‐Accelerated Sediment Accumulation in Playa Wetlands

Tang

Drahota

et al. 2015

J American Water Resour Assoc

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Wetlands in the Rainwater Basin in Nebraska are vulnerable to sediment accumulation from the surrounding watershed. Sediment accumulation has a negative impact on wetland quality by decreasing the depth and volume of water stored, and the plant community species composition and density growing in the wetland. The objective of this study was to determine the amount of sediment that has accumulated in five selected wetlands in the Rainwater Basin in Nebraska. Soil cores were taken at five or six locations along transects across each wetland. This study used the fly ash, which is generated by coal‐burning locomotives that were present generally in the late 1800s and early 1900s, as a marker to quantify the sediment deposition rates. The cores were divided into 5 cm sections and the soils were analyzed using a fly ash extraction and identification technique. Results indicate that the average depth of sediment ranged from 23.00 to 38.00 cm. The annual average depth of sediment accumulation ranged from 0.18 cm/yr to 0.29 cm/yr. The annual sediment accumulation rate from both wind erosion and water erosion in these five sampling wetlands was between 1.946 and 3.225 kg/m2/yr. The results of this research can be used to develop restoration plans for wetlands. The fly ash testing technology can also be applied to other areas with the railroads across the United States.

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Section: Methodsmentioning

confidence: 99%

Using Fly Ash as a Marker to Quantify Culturally‐Accelerated Sediment Accumulation in Playa Wetlands

Tang

Drahota

et al. 2015

J American Water Resour Assoc

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“…Therefore, it can acquire long‐distance 3D coordinates of intertidal landforms with high resolution and echo information at full waveform. The LiDAR scanner can overcome the deficiencies of traditional field measurements in complex terrain, providing data with high spatial resolution (Tang et al ., 2015).…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

A novel approach to discriminate sedimentary characteristics of deltaic tidal flats with terrestrial laser scanner: Results from a case study

et al. 2022

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Sediments in deltaic tidal flats regulate physical and chemical processes. Grain-size distribution plays an important role in determining sediment dynamics and substrate properties. However, it is challenging to quantify large-scale depositional environments in intertidal flats, due to timeconsuming grain-size analyses and sparse sedimentary information extracted from scattered sediment samples. In this study, a novel terrestrial laser scanner (TLS) based method was developed to characterize the substrate of an intertidal flat. Surface sediment samples in the Nanhui flats in the Yangtze Delta, China, and the corresponding waveform amplitudes of TLS echoes at fixed sampling sites were collected for a total of 22 months. A negative logarithmic relationship was found between the sediment sand fraction, average grain size, D 50 , and corrected waveform amplitude of TLS echo in different hydro-meteorological conditions. The mean of average grain size of five sediment sampling sites along a transect was 58.78 μm when measured by traditional grain-size analysis, and 49.48 μm when calculated with the proposed logarithmic equation. The mean error at each site was up to 21.77%. The mean error for the sand and silt fraction at each location was as high as 27.28% and 21.75%, respectively. The spatial distribution pattern of TLSbased average grain size in the entire study area was consistent with the measured pattern with a Root Mean Square Error of 13.83 μm. These errors could be caused by the accuracy of the TLS waveform amplitude correction and by limits of the method in recognizing different substrates. The effects produced by the presence of microphytobenthos (for example, cyanobacterial mats or diatom biofilms) or bedforms have not been investigated and may have affected the results. The TLS-based grain-size measurements can rapidly and effectively discriminate sediment characteristics, thus avoiding traditional time-consuming measurements. It is expected that the TLS-based method proposed here will have wide applications in shoreline studies, especially in inaccessible tidal flats.

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“…Furthermore, playas in the northern Great Basin differ from those in agricultural regions (e.g., Great Plains) in that they are largely embedded in sage brush steppe with uniform land use (i.e., grazing or range conservation). Widespread declines in playa inundation in Great Plains playas have been linked to agricultural conversion, road building, and even conservation easements (Cariveau et al 2011; Bartuszevige et al 2012;Tang et al 2015;Tang et al 2016;Tang et al 2018), whereas trends in inundation for northern Great Basin playasand the role of livestock operations in these trendsare largely unknown (Dlugolecki 2010).…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Legacy Effects of Hydrologic Alteration in Playa Wetland Responses to Droughts

et al. 2020

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Wetland conservation increasingly must account for climate change and legacies of previous land-use practices. Playa wetlands provide critical wildlife habitat, but may be impacted by intensifying droughts and previous hydrologic modifications. To inform playa restoration planning, we asked: (1) what are the trends in playa inundation? (2) what are the factors influencing inundation? (3) how is playa inundation affected by increasingly severe drought? (4) do certain playas provide hydrologic refugia during droughts, and (5) if so, how are refugia patterns related to historical modifications? Using remotely sensed surface-water data, we evaluated a 30-year time series (1985-2015) of inundation for 153 playas of the Great Basin, USA. Inundation likelihood and duration increased with wetter weather conditions and were greater in modified playas. Inundation probability was projected to decrease from 22% under average conditions to 11% under extreme drought, with respective annual inundation decreasing from 1.7 to 0.9 months. Only 4% of playas were inundated for at least 2 months in each of the 5 driest years, suggesting their potential as drought refugia. Refugial playas were larger and more likely to have been modified, possibly because previous land managers selected refugial playas for modification. These inundation patterns can inform efforts to restore wetland functions and to conserve playa habitats as climate conditions change.

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Examining Playa Wetland Inundation Conditions for National Wetland Inventory, Soil Survey Geographic Database, and LiDAR Data

Cited by 12 publications

References 28 publications

Using Fly Ash as a Marker to Quantify Culturally‐Accelerated Sediment Accumulation in Playa Wetlands

Using Fly Ash as a Marker to Quantify Culturally‐Accelerated Sediment Accumulation in Playa Wetlands

A novel approach to discriminate sedimentary characteristics of deltaic tidal flats with terrestrial laser scanner: Results from a case study

Legacy Effects of Hydrologic Alteration in Playa Wetland Responses to Droughts

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