We Can Better Manage Ecosystems by Connecting Solutions to Constraints: Learning from Wetland Plant Invasions

Abstract

Wetlands provide critical wildlife habitat, improve water quality, and mitigate the impacts of floods, droughts, and climate change. Yet, they are drained, filled, dredged, and otherwise altered by humans, all of which contribute to their high susceptibility to plant invasions. Given the societal significance of wetlands and the disproportionately large amount of time and money spent controlling invaders in remaining wetlands, a fundamental shift must occur in how we approach restoration of plant-invaded wetlands. The need for more research is often used as an excuse for a lack of progress in invader management but, in fact, constraints to invader management are spread across the science, management, and stakeholder engagement domains. At their intersection are “implementation gap” constraints where the monumental efforts required to bridge the gap among scientists, managers, and community stakeholders are often unassigned, unrewarded, and underestimated. Here we synthesize and present a portfolio of broad structured approaches and specific actions that can be used to advance restoration of plant-invaded wetlands in a diversity of contexts immediately and over the long-term, linking these solutions to the constraints they best address. These solutions can be used by individual managers to chart a path forward when they are daunted by potentially needing to pivot from more familiar management actions to increase efficiency and efficacy in attaining restoration goals. In more complex collaborations with multiple actors, the shared vocabulary presented here for considering and selecting the most appropriate solution will be essential. Of course, every management context is unique (i.e., different constraints are at play) so we advocate that involved parties consider a range of potential solutions, rather than either assuming any single solution to be universally optimal or relying on a solution simply because it is familiar and feasible. Moving rapidly to optimally effective invasive plant management in wetlands may not be realistic, but making steady, incremental progress by implementing appropriate solutions based on clearly identified constraints will be critical to eventually attaining wetland restoration goals.

Got plants? Availability of and challenges to production of native plants for wetland restoration

“…The science‐practice gap has been identified as a widespread problem in restoration research and practice (Matzek et al 2014; Adams et al 2021). Surprisingly, in our study we found that a large portion of vendors access peer‐reviewed literature to gain knowledge to facilitate production.…”

“…Surprisingly, in our study we found that a large portion of vendors access peer-reviewed literature to gain knowledge to facilitate production. This finding suggests that the scientific community could play a strong role in improving wetland plant material availability, especially if research results are freely available through open access publication (Adams et al 2021). Scientists could also engage vendors for input on designing relevant research (i.e.…”

“…Remaining wetlands occupy a relatively small portion of land area globally (about 5–10%) but contribute a disproportionately large amount of critical ecosystem services, such as habitat provisioning for biodiversity, maintaining water quality, mitigating floods, and sequestering carbon (Zedler & Kercher 2005; Kingsford et al 2016). Wetlands are threatened by alterations in the quantity and quality of the water that defines them, such as by the creation of levees to prevent flooding, drainage for agricultural purposes, and eutrophication from agricultural runoff, as well as the establishment of invasive species (Zedler & Kercher 2005; Adams et al 2021). As a result of these and other anthropogenic influences, over 70% of global wetlands (inland and coastal) have been lost, and much of the remaining wetlands are degraded or vulnerable to degradation (Kingsford et al 2016).…”

“…Restoration, including revegetation, can slow and possibly reverse the loss of wetlands and the ecosystem services that they provide (Zedler & Kercher 2005; Kettenring & Tarsa 2020). Despite the critical role of wetlands globally, research on wetland restoration and the establishment of effective collaborations focused on wetland restoration have lagged behind other ecosystems (Kingsford et al 2016; Kettenring & Tarsa 2020; Adams et al 2021). It remains unknown whether the challenges of producing plant materials for restoration in other ecosystems apply to wetlands.…”

Lay of the (wet)land: manager practices and challenges in wetland revegetation

“…Capacity challenges such as adequate funding, labor, retaining people with expertise, and agency priorities have also been suggested as potential barriers to revegetation (Galatowitsch 2023). In particular, insufficient and unpredictable funding, as well as a lack of appreciation of the funding requirements for restoration implementation have been cited as potential obstacles in wetland restoration (Adams et al 2021). Additionally, previous research has shown an overall lack of diverse plant materials available for revegetation, which suggests that access to plant materials may also be a challenge for wetland land managers (National Academies of Sciences, Engineering, and Medicine 2023; Henry et al 2024).…”