The wetland continuum: A conceptual framework for interpreting biological studies

Abstract

We describe a conceptual model, the wetland continuum, which allows wetland managers, scientists, and ecologists to consider simultaneously the influence of climate and hydrologic setting on wetland biological communities. Although multidimensional, the wetland continuum is most easily represented as a two-dimensional gradient, with ground water and atmospheric water constituting the horizontal and vertical axes, respectively. By locating the position of a wetland on both axes of the continuum, the potential biological expression of the wetland can be predicted at any point in time. The model provides a framework useful in the organization and interpretation of biological data from wetlands by incorporating the dynamic changes these systems undergo as a result of normal climatic variation rather than placing them into static categories common to many wetland classification systems. While we developed this model from the literature available for depressional wetlands in the prairie pothole region of North America, we believe the concept has application to wetlands in many other geographic locations.

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

“…Catchments with more wetlands, even if some are drained, are likely to have more undulating topography that should allow for more upper-catchment water storage during large precipitation events (including snow melt), reducing water surface areas of consolidated wetlands , Winter 2003, Euliss et al 2004). While catchments with more wetlands have more wetlands to potentially drain, we found only weak evidence that proportions of drained and pre-drainage wetlands were correlated (correlation coefficient ¼ 0.106).…”

“…Additionally, depressional wetlands that dry out and have fewer surface-water connections often lack fish, leading to higher abundances of invertebrates and more productive habitat for amphibians and breeding waterfowl (Semlitsch and Bodie 1998, van der Valk and Pederson 2003, Zedler 2003. The water levels of depressional wetlands may vary intra-annually, with smaller wetlands filling up in the spring and drying out by mid-summer (Brooks 2004, Machtinger 2007 or inter-annually, with larger wetlands responding to multi-year wet-dry periods (Euliss et al 2004, Johnson et al 2004.…”

Effects of land use on greenhouse gas fluxes and soil properties of wetland catchments in the Prairie Pothole Region of North America

“…The comparatively larger semipermanent wetlands often receive groundwater, hence they dry less often than seasonal wetlands and can have much higher concentrations of water-quality constituents such as TDS and sulfate. The waterbalance of PPR wetlands is dominated by precipitation and associated runoff; thus, surface-water characteristics of individual wetlands are highly variable temporally (Euliss et al, 2004(Euliss et al, , 2014. For example, reported sulfate concentrations for PPR wetlands and shallow lakes range from b1 to 87,500 mg L −1 depending of factors such as groundwater interaction and seasonal water levels (e.g., Swanson et al, 1988;Tangen et al, 2013;Euliss et al, 2014;Post van der Burg and Tangen, 2015).…”

Review: From multi-scale conceptualization to a classification system for inland groundwater-dependent ecosystems

“…Peatlands may be supplied by rainwater, surface water and groundwater whose proportions depend on their position in the landscape, surrounding geology (terrains permeability) and maturity of the ecosystems (Mitsch and Gosselink 1993;National Wetlands Groups 1997;Euliss et al 2004). Minerotrophic peatlands (usually referred as fens/marshes, swamps) are mainly fed by surface water or groundwater.…”

“…Cowardin et al (1979) focused on salinity regimes, water permanency, pH, and soil material. Brinson (1993), Euliss et al (2004) and Davies and Anderson (2001) highlighted that the geomorphic function and hydrogeological processes (Brinson 1993;Hajek et al 2006;Pellerin et al 2009;van Loon et al 2009) and to assess the effects of hydrochemical changes in ecosystems (Rhode et al 2004;Brewer and Menzel 2009). Previous ecological studies (Aeschimann et al 2004;Cantonati et al 2006;Hajek et al 2006;Delarze and Gonseth 2008) or databases (Corinne Biotope 1991) were used.…”