Historical Ecology as a Tool for Assessing Landscape Change and Informing Wetland Restoration Priorities

Abstract

Vast resources are devoted annually to watershed management and wetland restoration. Historical wetland losses are often cited as a motivation for prioritizing ambitious wetland restoration efforts. However, analysis of historical conditions is often underutilized in the planning process. In this paper we demonstrate historical ecological analysis of the San Gabriel River watershed in southern California. We integrate multiple disparate data sources collected at different spatial and temporal scales to describe historical wetland extent and distribution. We compare historic wetlands to contemporary conditions to calculate wetland losses. From the results of this analysis, we conclude that the widely held view of southern California as naturally dry and desert-like with mainly ephemeral and intermittent streams may be an over generalization. Historically, the San Gabriel watershed has supported complex expanses of channels, ponds, sloughs, seeps, marshes, and seasonal wetlands that alternated between wet and dry conditions on multi-year to decadal cycles. We estimate that >86% of historical wetlands have been lost since ca. 1870, with the greatest losses occurring to palustrine alkali meadows in the lower floodplain. Despite the extensive losses, the analysis reveals areas of the watershed conducive to wetland re-establishment and provides insight into the most appropriate wetland types to prioritize for specific watershed settings.

Biology in the Anthropocene: Challenges and insights from young fossil records

“…Dramatic changes that occurred before professional scientific observations in an area can be revealed by written records-even the ancient Romans complained about declines in fish abundance (109)-and can be augmented by morphologic, isotopic, aDNA, and other analyses of archeological materials and museum-archived specimens (39,110). Maps, photographs, and economic data can also draw back the veil on trends, especially for habitat and ecological changes at localto-regional scales (23,(111)(112)(113), and experiments can test historical hypotheses of effect (e.g., ref. 114).…”

Remote Sensing and GIS Support to Identify Potential Areas for Wetland Restoration from Cropland: A Case Study in the West Songnen Plain, Northeast China

“…For example, large numbers of studies have been conducted based on RS and GIS to investigate the conversions between wetland and cropland [21,25]. RS provides important data, covering a broad spatial extent and a long time series, while GIS has been widely used to develop data analysis and mapping [23,37]. Making spatial decisions is critical to wetland restoration at a regional scale [13].…”

Geospatial Informatics Key to Recovering and Sharing Historical Ecological Data for Modern Use

“…Methods for the reconstruction of past vegetation abundance and pattern can include biological methods such as dendrochronology or palynology (Egan,2005), but when biological samples are not available, many researchers use historical map and plot data, as well as other cultural references (Beller et al, 2017;Grossinger et al,2007;Stein et al, 2010;Whipple et al, 2011) to understand past conditions. In the Eastern and Midwestern United States of America there are extensive archival records, including the General Land Office surveys and other early land surveys (Galatowitsch, 1990;Mladenoff et al, 2002;Schulte and Mladenoff, 2001), but in the North American West these data are less common and the reconstruction of past conditions can be hampered by a relative paucity of vegetation data.…”