Spatial and Temporal Variation in Wet Area of Wetlands in the Prairie Pothole Region of North Dakota and South Dakota

Niemuth, Neal D.; Wangler, Brian; Reynolds, Ronald E.

doi:10.1007/s13157-010-0111-1

Cited by 101 publications

(91 citation statements)

References 38 publications

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“…The draining of seasonal and temporary wetlands alone can decrease the number of ducks found on the landscape (Kantrud and Stewart 1977, Cowardin et al 1995) and the loss of short-hydroperiod wetlands may have a large impact on the biodiversity of the region (LaBaugh et al 1998, Niemuth et al 2010. Additionally, our fine-scale drought index provides data that support the hypothesis that climate can vary across a relatively small spatial scale; portions of the PPR could be in different parts of the wet-dry cycle at any given time Solberg 2003, Niemuth et al 2008).…”

Section: Ecological Implicationsmentioning

confidence: 99%

Land use and wetland drainage affect water levels and dynamics of remaining wetlands

et al. 2015

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Abstract. Depressional wetlands are productive and unique ecosystems found around the world. Their value is due, in part, to their dynamic nature, in which water levels fluctuate in response to climate, occasionally drying out. However, many wetlands have been altered by consolidation drainage, where multiple, smaller wetlands are drained into fewer, larger, wetlands causing higher water levels. We evaluated whether current (2003)(2004)(2005)(2006)(2007)(2008)(2009)(2010) water surface areas were greater than historical water surface areas of 141 randomly selected semipermanent and permanent wetlands across the Prairie Pothole Region of North Dakota, USA. We also evaluated whether differences between historical and current hydrology of these wetlands were attributable to consolidation drainage. For each of these wetlands, we digitized water surface areas from aerial photography during historical and current eras. Our results indicated that water surface areas are currently 86% greater in sample wetlands than they were historically and that differences can be attributed to consolidation drainage. Water surface areas of consolidated wetlands in extensively drained landscapes were 197% greater than those with no drainage and now require more extreme drought conditions to dry out. Wetlands in extensively drained catchments were larger, dry out less frequently, and have more surface-water connections to other wetlands via ditches. These factors make conditions more favorable for the presence of fish that decrease abundances of aquatic invertebrates and reduce the productivity and quality of these wetlands for many species. Our results support the idea that intact wetlands serve an important role in water storage and groundwater recharge and reduce down-stream runoff.

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Section: Ecological Implicationsmentioning

confidence: 99%

Land use and wetland drainage affect water levels and dynamics of remaining wetlands

et al. 2015

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“…To address this issue, numerous studies have investigated hydrological processes and examined the water balance of prairie wetlands (e.g. Millar 1971, Poiani and Johnson 1993, Woo and Rowsell 1993, Winter and Rosenberry 1995, 1998, LaBaugh et al 1996, 1998, Rosenberry and Winter 1997, Su et al 2000, Spence 2007, Fang et al 2010, Niemuth et al 2010, Liu and Schwartz 2011. However, a landscape hydrological modelling that includes multiple wetlands is desired for two reasons.…”

Section: Ppr Wetlandsmentioning

confidence: 99%

“…For example, temporary wetlands are the most environmentally variable within the wetland complex (Johnson et al 2004), and it was revealed that smaller ponds, when compared with large ponds, have much higher recession rates due to greater infiltration loss through shallow groundwater flow (van der Kamp and Hayashi 2009). Diverse complexes of wetlands contribute high spatial and temporal environmental heterogeneity, productivity and biodiversity to these glaciated prairie landscapes (Johnson et al 2010); therefore, all the wetlands differing in landscape type and size should be considered together for evaluating the many ecosystem services (Leibowitz 2003, Johnson et al 2005, 2010, Niemuth et al 2010. However, existing studies of wetland complexes that have included detailed hydrological processes represent only part of the diverse hydrogeological setting of the prairie (Winter and Rosenberry 1995, LaBaugh et al 1998.…”

Section: Ppr Wetlandsmentioning

confidence: 99%

“…The PCHM was developed mainly to simulate water areafrequency relationships, and the pure power laws are weakly coupled to the dynamic character of the water bodies; therefore, the PCHM could not produce water bodies that disaggregate during dry periods or coalesce during wet periods (Liu and Schwartz 2011). Niemuth et al (2010) described spatial and temporal patterns of wetness and variation in wetness, and determined how the inter-annual dynamics of wetlands were related to the water regimes; however, their work precluded inferences about how individual wetlands vary as a function of water regime, and did not reveal spatial variance at the scale of wetland complexes. Fang et al (2010) used the Cold Regions Hydrological Modelling platform (CRHM) for an externally drained basin with an area of approximately 400 km 2 .…”

Section: Ppr Wetlandsmentioning

confidence: 99%

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Simulating the water budget of a Prairie Potholes complex from LiDAR and hydrological models in North Dakota, USA

Huang

Young

Abdul‐Aziz

et al. 2013

Hydrological Sciences Journal

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Hydrological processes of the wetland complex in the Prairie Pothole Region (PPR) are difficult to model, partly due to a lack of wetland morphology data. We used Light Detection And Ranging (LiDAR) data sets to derive wetland features; we then modelled rainfall, snowfall, snowmelt, runoff, evaporation, the "fill-and-spill" mechanism, shallow groundwater loss, and the effect of wet and dry conditions. For large wetlands with a volume greater than thousands of cubic metres (e.g. about 3000 m 3 ), the modelled water volume agreed fairly well with observations; however, it did not succeed for small wetlands (e.g. volume less than 450 m 3 ). Despite the failure for small wetlands, the modelled water area of the wetland complex coincided well with interpretation of aerial photographs, showing a linear regression with R 2 of around 0.80 and a mean average error of around 0.55 km 2 . The next step is to improve the water budget modelling for small wetlands. Résumé Les processus hydrologiques du complexe de zones humides de la région des fondrières des prairies sont difficiles à modéliser, en partie à cause d'un manque de données de morphologie des zones humides. Nous avons utilisé des jeux de données LiDAR (Light Detection And Ranging) pour calculer les caractéristiques des zones humides. Nous avons ensuite modélisé les pluies, les précipitations neigeuses, la fonte des neiges, le ruissellement, l'évaporation, le mécanisme de débordement par saturation, les pertes des eaux souterraines peu profondes, et l'effet des conditions humides et sèches. Pour les zones humides étendues ayant un volume supérieur à quelques milliers de mètres cubes (par exemple, environ 3000 m 3 ), le volume d'eau modélisé s'accorde assez bien avec les observations, mais le modèle a été tenu en échec pour les zones humides de petite taille (par exemple, volume inférieur à 450 m 3 ). Malgré l'échec pour les petites zones humides, la zone d'eau modélisée du complexe de zones humides coïncidait bien avec l'interprétation des photographies aériennes, montrant une régression linéaire avec un R 2 de l'ordre de 0,80 et une erreur moyenne autour de 0,55 km 2 . La prochaine étape est d'améliorer la modélisation du bilan hydrique pour les zones humides de petite taille.

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“…Substantial variation in surface-water extent in response to climate is well-documented within the region (Beeri and Phillips 2007;Zhang et al 2009;Niemuth et al 2010;Huang et al 2011a;Liu and Schwartz 2011). Changes to surface waters can result in variable wetland-to-wetland (Winter and Rosenberry 1998;Kahara et al 2009) and wetlandto-stream connectivity (Leibowitz and Vining 2003;Sass and Creed 2008;Vanderhoof et al 2016).…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Patterns and drivers for wetland connections in the Prairie Pothole Region, United States

Vanderhoof

Christensen

Alexander

2016

Wetlands Ecol Manage

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Ecosystem function in rivers, lakes and coastal waters depends on the functioning of upstream aquatic ecosystems, necessitating an improved understanding of watershed-scale interactions including variable surface-water flows between wetlands and streams. As surface water in the Prairie Pothole Region expands in wet years, surface-water connections occur between many depressional wetlands and streams. Minimal research has explored the spatial patterns and drivers for the abundance of these connections, despite their potential to inform resource management and regulatory programs including the U.S. Clean Water Act. In this study, wetlands were identified that did not intersect the stream network, but were shown with Landsat images to become merged with the stream network as surface water expanded. Wetlands were found to spill into or consolidate with other wetlands within both small (2-10 wetlands) and large ([100 wetlands) wetland clusters, eventually intersecting a stream channel, most often via a riparian wetland. These surface-water connections occurred over a wide range of wetland distances from streams (averaging 90-1400 m in different ecoregions). Differences in the spatial abundance of wetlands that show a variable surface-water connection to a stream were best explained by smaller wetland-to-wetland distances, greater wetland abundance, and maximum surface-water extent. This analysis demonstrated that wetland arrangement and surface water expansion are important mechanisms for depressional wetlands to connect to streams and provides a first step to understanding the frequency and abundance of these surface-water connections across the Prairie Pothole Region.

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Spatial and Temporal Variation in Wet Area of Wetlands in the Prairie Pothole Region of North Dakota and South Dakota

Cited by 101 publications

References 38 publications

Land use and wetland drainage affect water levels and dynamics of remaining wetlands

Land use and wetland drainage affect water levels and dynamics of remaining wetlands

Simulating the water budget of a Prairie Potholes complex from LiDAR and hydrological models in North Dakota, USA

Patterns and drivers for wetland connections in the Prairie Pothole Region, United States

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