Using Net Wetland Loss, Current Wetland Condition, and Planned Future Watershed Condition for Wetland Conservation Planning and Prioritization, Tampa Bay Watershed, Florida

Rains, Mark C.; Landry, Shawn M.; Rains, Kai C.; Seidel, Valerie; Crisman, Thomas L.

doi:10.1007/s13157-013-0455-4

Cited by 18 publications

(11 citation statements)

References 19 publications

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“…Even before the Supreme Court decisions to limit federal protections, many GIWs were lost (52). Those that remain are imperiled by alterations to their geometry, connectivity (141,142), surrounding land cover, and now legal protections. Although the consequences of these changes require further research, GIW losses alter the portfolio of landscape connectivity with negative effects on downstream waters.…”

Section: Science and Policy Challengesmentioning

confidence: 99%

Do geographically isolated wetlands influence landscape functions?

Cohen

Creed

Alexander

et al. 2016

Proc. Natl. Acad. Sci. U.S.A.

327

334

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Geographically isolated wetlands (GIWs), those surrounded by uplands, exchange materials, energy, and organisms with other elements in hydrological and habitat networks, contributing to landscape functions, such as flow generation, nutrient and sediment retention, and biodiversity support. GIWs constitute most of the wetlands in many North American landscapes, provide a disproportionately large fraction of wetland edges where many functions are enhanced, and form complexes with other water bodies to create spatial and temporal heterogeneity in the timing, flow paths, and magnitude of network connectivity. These attributes signal a critical role for GIWs in sustaining a portfolio of landscape functions, but legal protections remain weak despite preferential loss from many landscapes. GIWs lack persistent surface water connections, but this condition does not imply the absence of hydrological, biogeochemical, and biological exchanges with nearby and downstream waters. Although hydrological and biogeochemical connectivity is often episodic or slow (e.g., via groundwater), hydrologic continuity and limited evaporative solute enrichment suggest both flow generation and solute and sediment retention. Similarly, whereas biological connectivity usually requires overland dispersal, numerous organisms, including many rare or threatened species, use both GIWs and downstream waters at different times or life stages, suggesting that GIWs are critical elements of landscape habitat mosaics. Indeed, weaker hydrologic connectivity with downstream waters and constrained biological connectivity with other landscape elements are precisely what enhances some GIW functions and enables others. Based on analysis of wetland geography and synthesis of wetland functions, we argue that sustaining landscape functions requires conserving the entire continuum of wetland connectivity, including GIWs.connectivity | navigable waters | significant nexus Understanding connectivity-patterns of matter, energy, and organism exchanges among landscape elements and across scales-is a challenge that unites the fields of ecology and hydrology (1). Connectivity enables dispersal of organisms and flows of water between landscape elements at multiple spatial and temporal scales

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Section: Science and Policy Challengesmentioning

confidence: 99%

Do geographically isolated wetlands influence landscape functions?

Cohen

Creed

Alexander

et al. 2016

Proc. Natl. Acad. Sci. U.S.A.

327

334

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“…Landscape metrics and indices assist decision makers with allocating limited funds by prioritizing monitoring, protection, and restoration efforts (Hyman and Leibowitz 2000 ; Lausch and Herzog 2002 ; Steel et al 2004 ; Hierl et al 2008 ). Landscape metrics and indices are also frequently used to refine or test finer-scale monitoring and assessment tools (Stein et al 2009 ; Rains et al 2013 ). Also, quality thresholds are frequently used to trigger management actions and addressing the effects of classification error on assessment metric and index scores can assist decision makers in determining which sites are above or below such thresholds.…”

Section: Discussionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Effect of thematic map misclassification on landscape multi-metric assessment

Kleindl

Powell

Hauer

2015

Environ Monit Assess

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Advancements in remote sensing and computational tools have increased our awareness of large-scale environmental problems, thereby creating a need for monitoring, assessment, and management at these scales. Over the last decade, several watershed and regional multi-metric indices have been developed to assist decision-makers with planning actions of these scales. However, these tools use remote-sensing products that are subject to land-cover misclassification, and these errors are rarely incorporated in the assessment results. Here, we examined the sensitivity of a landscape-scale multi-metric index (MMI) to error from thematic land-cover misclassification and the implications of this uncertainty for resource management decisions. Through a case study, we used a simplified floodplain MMI assessment tool, whose metrics were derived from Landsat thematic maps, to initially provide results that were naive to thematic misclassification error. Using a Monte Carlo simulation model, we then incorporated map misclassification error into our MMI, resulting in four important conclusions: (1) each metric had a different sensitivity to error; (2) within each metric, the bias between the error-naive metric scores and simulated scores that incorporate potential error varied in magnitude and direction depending on the underlying land cover at each assessment site; (3) collectively, when the metrics were combined into a multi-metric index, the effects were attenuated; and (4) the index bias indicated that our naive assessment model may overestimate floodplain condition of sites with limited human impacts and, to a lesser extent, either over- or underestimated floodplain condition of sites with mixed land use.

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“…This groundwater‐fed wetland complex represents a relatively common geomorphic and hydrological template (Tiner, ; Rains, ; Lane et al ., ). Wetlands cover 15% of the Tampa Bay watershed (Rains et al ., ). Temperatures average 15 °C in January and 28 °C in August, and mean humidity is 73% (data, National Climatic Data Center).…”

Section: Methodsmentioning

confidence: 99%

“…Soil organic matter accumulates disproportionately in wetlands (Craft & Chiang, ; Mitra et al ., ; Bridgham et al ., ; Ahn et al ., ), where soil enzyme activity and decomposition are slowed by prolonged inundation and anoxia (Reddy & Patrick, ; Skopp et al ., ; Day & Megonigal, ; McLatchey & Reddy, ; Freeman et al ., ; Lewis et al ., 2014a). Yet wetland water loss is globally pervasive, and results from reduced water inputs due to climate change (Roulet et al ., ; Klein et al ., ), drainage due to water appropriation (Rains et al ., ), and drainage for land reclamation (Baldock et al ., ; McCorvie & Lant, ). This loss of water accelerates organic matter export from wetlands because soil drainage permits oxidation of organic matter vulnerable to aerobically active enzymes (Updegraff et al ., ; Bridgham et al ., ; Fenner & Freeman, ; Webster et al ., ), in turn elevating ecosystem respiration (Alm et al ., ; Schedlbauer et al ., ; Sulman et al ., ).…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Connecting carbon and nitrogen storage in rural wetland soil to groundwater abstraction for urban water supply

Lewis

Feit

2014

Global Change Biology

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We investigated whether groundwater abstraction for urban water supply diminishes the storage of carbon (C), nitrogen (N), and organic matter in the soil of rural wetlands. Wetland soil organic matter (SOM) benefits air and water quality by sequestering large masses of C and N. Yet, the accumulation of wetland SOM depends on soil inundation, so we hypothesized that groundwater abstraction would diminish stocks of SOM, C, and N in wetland soils. Predictions of this hypothesis were tested in two types of subtropical, depressional-basin wetland: forested swamps and herbaceous-vegetation marshes. In west-central Florida, >650 ML groundwater day(-1) are abstracted for use primarily in the Tampa Bay metropolis. At higher abstraction volumes, water tables were lower and wetlands had shorter hydroperiods (less time inundated). In turn, wetlands with shorter hydroperiods had 50-60% less SOM, C, and N per kg soil. In swamps, SOM loss caused soil bulk density to double, so areal soil C and N storage per m(2) through 30.5 cm depth was diminished by 25-30% in short-hydroperiod swamps. In herbaceous-vegetation marshes, short hydroperiods caused a sharper decline in N than in C. Soil organic matter, C, and N pools were not correlated with soil texture or with wetland draining-reflooding frequency. Many years of shortened hydroperiod were probably required to diminish soil organic matter, C, and N pools by the magnitudes we observed. This diminution might have occurred decades ago, but could be maintained contemporarily by the failure each year of chronically drained soils to retain new organic matter inputs. In sum, our study attributes the contraction of hydroperiod and loss of soil organic matter, C, and N from rural wetlands to groundwater abstraction performed largely for urban water supply, revealing teleconnections between rural ecosystem change and urban resource demand.

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Using Net Wetland Loss, Current Wetland Condition, and Planned Future Watershed Condition for Wetland Conservation Planning and Prioritization, Tampa Bay Watershed, Florida

Cited by 18 publications

References 19 publications

Do geographically isolated wetlands influence landscape functions?

Do geographically isolated wetlands influence landscape functions?

Effect of thematic map misclassification on landscape multi-metric assessment

Connecting carbon and nitrogen storage in rural wetland soil to groundwater abstraction for urban water supply

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