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Abstract

Wetlands are increasingly becoming the target of efforts to restore or mitigate past and current loss of area and other impacts on their function. Tidal wetlands serve an array of functions deemed beneficial (ecosystem services) but there are relatively few efforts to provide verified indicators of these functions or assess variability in function among wetlands. We assessed twelve functions ranging from wave energy dissipation to fish species richness in tidal freshwater wetlands on the Hudson River. These functions were assessed along with potential "indicators" of function at fifteen marshes selected to span hydrogeomorphic classes as well as expected level of function. Functions varied dramatically among wetland sites, with scores summed across func- Aquatic Sciencestions ranging from 16 % to 70 % of the maximum possible. Some of the functions were positively associated such that improvement in one would probably be accompanied by improvements in others. Some functions (e. g., surface water exchange and breeding bird habitat) were negatively correlated indicating that one site cannot maximize all potential functions. A verified reference data set allows more objective selection of targets and sites for restoration as well as establishing realistic goals for what might be achieved. The validated indicators of function are valuable tools for extrapolating from a few intensively studied sites to the larger, unsampled, population of wetland sites in a region.

Ranking the Key Forest Habitats in Ecosystem Function Provision: Case Study from Morava River Basin

“…Another criterion is water quality, which corresponds to chemical characteristics (e.g., acidity/alkalinity, dissolved toxins, dissolved salts, conductivity, dissolved oxygen, P and N concentrations, sediment being settled/turbidity, water temperature), and biotic characteristics that are evaluated more comprehensively and in greater detail (e.g., biotic interactions, coarse wood debris, fish life stages, vegetation cover, the presence of species sensitive to pollution, algal production, macrophytes, bacteria/fungi, invertebrates, fish, species richness and diversity, trophic diversity) [8]. One of the important indicators in the assessment of wetlands is the total nitrogen content in the soil [9].…”

Development of a reference coastal wetland set in Southern New England (USA)

“…Few studies of tidal coastal wetlands have developed integrative condition indices among geomorphologically similar sites representing a range of anthropogenic stress, although there are a number of functional and/or condition assessments of various other wetland classes that incorporate a hydrogeomorphic approach (e.g., Brinson 1993;Brinson and Rheinhardt 1996;Findlay et al 2002;Brooks et al 2004;Wardrop et al 2007). In this study, we developed an integrative salt marsh condition index by synthesizing a number of detailed studies examining plant, invertebrate, and soil components in a reference set of ten tidal, coastal wetlands subjected to increasing watershed land use and nitrogen (N) loads in the Narragansett Bay basin (RI).…”

“…In some areas, identifying least disturbed sites as reference standard wetlands is difficult due to numerous anthropogenic alterations to wetlands. In these areas, a reference set of wetlands which encompasses a range of anthropogenic alterations can be established for assessing the aquatic resource (e.g., Findlay et al 2002;US EPA 2006;Rheinhardt et al 2007).…”