Monitoring and Assessment of Wetland Condition Using Plant Morphologic and Physiologic Indicators

High Recovery from Either Waterlogging or Drought Overrides Any Beneficial Acclimation of Chloris gayana Facing a Subsequent Round of Stress

“…Considering this, a tentative hypothesis is that C. gayana plants acclimated to either waterlogging or drought are primed for a second stressful event and perform better in terms of growth potential to mixed stresses than previously non-stressed plants (control plants at field capacity). Despite the high sensitivity of growth-related parameters to abiotic stress [ 11 , 36 ], our results did not support this hypothesis, as plant performance during a second stress round in terms of RGR did not depend on the occurrence of a previous acclimation to either drought or waterlogging. Cross-protection based on hormonal (mainly abscisic acid) and metabolic acclimations was observed between drought and several stress factors capable of triggering leaf dehydration, such as heat, salinity, and freezing temperatures [ 37 , 38 ].…”

Selection and Application of Ecosystem Evaluation Index for Ranking Inland Wetland Conservation

“…However, the index for evaluating the ecological process and function that could reflect the structural characteristics, improvement of water quality and the provision of habitat (Koo and Kim, 2001;Hruby, 2001;Haering and Galbraith, 2010) and the index that could reflect the landscape context, size of land and water surface and vegetation or soil status enabling the evaluation of ecological healthiness (Cowardin et al, 1979;Faber-Langendoen et al, 2012) were selected in this study. Also, it was judged that the flora needed to be reflected on the index for qualitative evaluation since the fresh water wetlands were influenced by the disturbance level and morphological properties (Johnston et al, 2009;Mollard et al, 2013) in terms of evaluation of plant community integrity (Index of plant community integrity) and…”

“…However, only physical and biological characteristics were considered in this study in accordance with the opinions of Kent et al (1992), Breckenridget et al 1995, Turner et al (1993) and Hruby et al (1999) asserting that the measurement simplicity, availability, cost efficiency as well as ease of information improvement needed to be available for selecting the evaluation index. For the physical characteristics, the naturalness and potential for damage were selected as index in order to reflect the area of wetlands, internal and external vegetation area and surrounding land use in terms of ecological integrity evaluation (Mollard et al, 2013). For biological characteristics, the biological diversity, naturalness of vegetation and rarity were selected as index in order to reflect qualitative aspects and evaluate the disturbance level (Johnston et al, 2009) and suitability as biological habitats (Stewart, 1996) (Figure 2).…”

“…For selecting the evaluation index, only physical and biological characteristics were considered by considering the fact that a method that could evaluate the physical structure, chemical properties of water, and biological properties comprehensively was proposed commonly (Adamus et al, 1987;Brinson, 1993;Smith et al, 1995) the opinions of Kent et al (1992), Turner et al (1993), Hruby et al (1999) asserting that the measurement simplicity, availability, cost efficiency as well as ease of information improvement needed to be available for selecting the evaluation index. The ecological integrity (Mollard et al, 2013) for physical characteristics and the disturbance level (Johnston et al, 2009) and suitability as biological habitats (Stewart, 1996) for biological properties were evaluated in order to reflect qualitative aspects. For detailed evaluation items of each index, the landscape unit diversity and wildlife inhabit diversity for biological diversity and the naturalness of biotope and basin ecosystem for the naturalness were selected as detailed index.…”

“…In terms of biological aspect, wild birds are influenced by water quality, vegetation type and the depth of water, so it is necessary to reflect flora such as exotic species and indigenous species for qualitative evaluation (Stewart, 1996;Ervin et al, 2006). The disturbance level and morphological properties are emphasized in term of evaluation of plant community integrity (Index of plant community integrity) although fresh water wetlands are quite complicated due to the diversity of natural vegetation community (Johnston et al, 2009;2008;Mollard et al, 2013). Each researcher presents various items and standards for wetlands evaluation because the type of wetlands and the evaluation goals are different, and it is advisable to find an index which enables the trace of factors causing a change and a change in the ecosystem suffering from stress shocks under the standard called stability.…”