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WETLANDS
The definitive guide to wetlands for students and professionals alike
Wetlands rank among the most productive but also the most vulnerable ecosystems. They break down toxins and help maintain aquatic ecosystems, provide both permanent and temporary homes for key species, and contribute enormously to biodiversity and global ecological health. In recent years the importance of wetlands has been increasingly well understood, and their management and restoration has become a particular focus of environmental research.
Wetlands provides a thorough and comprehensive overview of wetlands, updated to reflect the latest research findings and methodological approaches, as it has done for more than a generation. The new edition has been optimized for classroom use, breaking down the topic into four parts: introduction to wetlands, the wetland environment, wetland ecosystems, and wetland management.
Readers of the sixth edition of Wetlands will also find:
Wetlands is essential reading for students and professionals in ecology, environmental engineering, and water resource management.
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Veröffentlichungsjahr: 2023
Cover
Title Page
Copyright Page
Preface
About the Companion Website
Part I: Introduction
Chapter 1: Wetland History and Science
Human History and Wetlands
Sustainable Cultures in Wetlands
Literary References to Wetlands
Food from Wetlands
Peat and Building Materials
Wetlands and Ecotourism
Wetland Conservation
Wetland Science and Wetland Scientists
Recommended Readings
References
Chapter 2: Wetland Definitions
Wetlands in the Landscape
Distinguishing Features of Wetlands
Difficulty of Defining Wetlands
Wetland Common Terms
Formal Wetland Definitions
Early U.S. Definition: Circular 39 Definition
U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service Definition
Canadian Wetland Definitions
U.S. National Academy of Sciences Definition
An International Definition
Legal Definitions
U.S. Army Corps of Engineers Definition
Food Security Act Definition
Jurisdictional Wetlands
Recommended Reading
References
Chapter 3: The World’s Wetlands
The Global Extent of Wetlands
Regional Wetlands of the World
Recommended Readings
References
Part II: The Wetland Environment
Chapter 4: Wetland Hydrology
Importance of Hydrology in Wetlands
Wetland Hydroperiod
Wetland Water Budget
Precipitation
Surface Flow
Groundwater
Evapotranspiration
Tides
Seiches
Effects of Hydrology on Wetland Function
Techniques for Wetland Hydrology Studies
Recommended Readings
References
Chapter 5: Wetland Soils
Types and Definitions
Organic Wetland Soil
Mineral Wetland Soil
Reduction/Oxidation in Wetland Soil
Recommended Readings
References
Chapter 6: Wetland Biogeochemistry
The Nitrogen Cycle
Iron and Manganese Transformations
The Sulfur Cycle
The Carbon Cycle
The Phosphorus Cycle
Water Chemistry
Nutrient Budgets of Wetlands
Recommended Readings
References
Chapter 7: Wetland Vegetation and Succession
Vascular Plant Adaptations to Waterlogging and Flooding
Wetland Succession
Recommended Readings
References
Part III: Wetland Ecosystems
Chapter 8: Coastal Wetlands
Tidal Salt Marshes
Tidal Freshwater Wetlands
Mangrove Swamps
Recommended Readings
References
Chapter 9: Freshwater Marshes and Swamps
Freshwater Marshes
Freshwater Swamps
Recommended Readings
References
Chapter 10: Peatlands
Geographic Extent
Hydrology and Peatland Development
Classification of Peatlands
Biogeochemistry
Vegetation
Consumers
Ecosystem Function
Recommended Readings
References
Part IV: Wetland Management
Chapter 11: Wetland Classification and Mapping
Wetland Classifications
Canadian Wetlands Classification System
Wetland Remote Sensing and Inventory
Recommended Readings
References
Chapter 12: Wetland Laws and Protection
Legal Protection of Wetlands in the United States
International Wetland Conservation
Recommended Readings
References
Chapter 13: Wetland Ecosystem Services
Wetland Ecosystem Services
Quantifying Ecosystem Services
Recommended Readings
References
Chapter 14: Wetland Creation and Restoration
Mitigating Wetland Habitat Loss
Hydrologic Restoration of Wetlands
Peatland Restoration
Coastal Wetland Restoration
Summary Principles
Recommended Readings
References
Chapter 15: Wetlands and Water Quality
Classifications of Wastewater Treatment Wetlands
Water Quality Wetland Design
Wetland Management after Construction
Economics and Values of Treatment Wetlands
Recommended Readings
References
Chapter 16: Wetlands and Climate Change
Climate Change
Wetlands in the Global Carbon Cycle
Effects of Climate Change on Wetlands
Recommended Readings
References
Glossary
Index
End User License Agreement
Chapter 1
Table 1.1 INTECOL wetland conferences, 1980 to 2021, indicating year, locat...
Chapter 2
Table 2.1 Common terms used for various wetland types in the world
Chapter 3
Table 3.1 Comparison of estimates of extent of wetlands in the world by cli...
Table 3.2 Loss of wetlands in various locations in the world
Table 3.3 Estimates of wetland changes in the conterminous United States. (...
Chapter 4
Table 4.1 Definitions of wetland hydroperiods
Table 4.2 Major components of hydrologic budgets for wetlands
Table 4.3 Values of the rational runoff coefficient C used to calculate pea...
Table 4.4 Roughness coefficients (n) for Manning equation used to determine...
Chapter 5
Table 5.1 Comparison of mineral and organic soils in wetlands
Table 5.2 Typical hydraulic conductivity for wetland soils compared with ot...
Table 5.3 The oxidized and reduced forms of key elements in the sequenced o...
Chapter 6
Table 6.1 Average chemical concentrations (mg/L) of ocean water and river wa...
Chapter 7
Table 7.1 Plant adaptations and responses to flooding and waterlogging
Table 7.2 Pressurized gas flow in culms or leaves of 13 wetland plants and 1...
Table 7.3 Traits measured on wetland plant species for functional group clas...
Table 7.4 Selected attributes for ecosystem development
Chapter 8
Table 8.1 Estimated area of coastal wetlands in the United States (×1,000 ha...
Table 8.2 Hydrologic demarcation between low marsh and high marsh in salt ma...
Table 8.3 Net primary productivity estimates of salt marshes and dominant pl...
Table 8.4 Comparison of annual benthic microalgal production (g C m−2 yr−1) ...
Table 8.5 Peak standing crop and annual net primary production (NPP) estimat...
Table 8.6 Soil salinity ranges for major mangrove types
Table 8.7 Structural characteristics of canopy vegetation for major mangrove...
Table 8.8 Mass balance of carbon flow (g‐C m−2 yr−1) in mangrove forests in ...
Chapter 9
Table 9.1 Estimated area of inland wetlands in the world and North America (...
Table 9.2 Occurrence (percentage of wetlands occupied) of pond‐breeding amph...
Table 9.3 Selected primary production estimates for inland freshwater marshe...
Table 9.4 Soil chemistry of Atlantic white cedar (Chamaecyparis thyoides) an...
Table 9.5 Distinction between bald cypress and pond cypress swamps
Table 9.6 Biomass and net primary productivity of deepwater swamps in the so...
Table 9.7 Estimated energy flow (kcal m−2 day−1) in selected Florida cypress...
Table 9.8 Phosphorus inputs to forested swamps (g‐P m−2 yr−1)...
Chapter 10
Table 10.1 Historical classification schemes for peatlands
Table 10.2 Acidity balance for a Minnesota bog complex
Table 10.3 Net primary productivity of peatlands in Europe and North America
Table 10.4 Comparison of selected data on production of Sphagnum species in ...
Chapter 11
Table 11.1 Early “Circular 39” wetland classification by U.S. Fish and Wildl...
Table 11.2 Modifiers used in current wetland and deepwater habitat classific...
Table 11.3 The Ramsar Convention International Wetland classification system...
Table 11.4 Functional classification of wetlands by geomorphology, water sou...
Chapter 12
Table 12.1 Significant federal laws, directives, and regulations in the Unit...
Table 12.2 Plant Indicator status categories used in wetland delineation...
Table 12.3 Hydrologic zones for nontidal areas used in hydrology determinat...
Table 12.4 Ramsar Convention criteria for identifying wetlands of internati...
Chapter 13
Table 13.1 Population estimates of the 10 most common species of breeding du...
Table 13.2 Threatened and endangered species associated with wetlands
Table 13.3 Habitat Evaluation Procedure of the impact of two management plan...
Table 13.4 Field parameters used to estimate ecosystem function in a hydroge...
Table 13.5 Predicted changes in hydrologic regime function resulting from a ...
Table 13.6 Some replacement technologies for societal support values provide...
Table 13.7 Estimated value of 770‐ha riparian wetlands along the Kankakee Ri...
Table 13.8 Estimates of wetland values in $/ha of Louisiana coastal marshes ...
Table 13.9 Results of emergy analysis comparing the economic value of three ...
Table 13.10 Estimated unit values of ecosystems (all numbers normalized to 2...
Chapter 14
Table 14.1 Water flow through the Florida Everglades for water years 2012 an...
Table 14.2 Mean carbon and nutrient accumulation rates in two experimental w...
Table 14.3 Selected plant species planted in created and restored wetlands
Table 14.4 Summary of vegetation species richness in two 1‐ha experimental w...
Chapter 15
Table 15.1 Suggested design parameters for constructed wetlands used for con...
Table 15.2 Recommended and actual hydrologic loading rates (HLR) for treatme...
Table 15.3 Nutrient and sediment removal rates and efficiency in constructed...
Table 15.4 Parameters for first‐order areal model given in equations to for ...
Table 15.5 Estimated cost comparison for phosphorus control in 760,000 m3/da...
Chapter 16
Table 16.1 Carbon Sequestration in wetlands
Table 16.2 Estimates of annual fluxes of methane from wetlands and other sou...
Table 16.3 Methane emissions from freshwater wetlands
Table 16.4 Below‐ground carbon stocks in the world and their vulnerabilities...
Table 16.5 Estimated percentage coastal wetland loss in the United States wi...
Chapter 1
Figure 1.1 The Marsh Arabs of present‐day southern Iraq lived for centuries ...
Figure 1.2 The Camargue region of southern France in the Rhone River Delta i...
Figure 1.3 A Cajun lumberjack camp in the Atchafalaya Swamp of coastal Louis...
Figure 1.4 “Ricer” poling and “knocking” wild rice (Zizania aquatica) into c...
Figure 1.5 The Miccosukee Native Americans adapted to life in the Florida Ev...
Figure 1.6 The playbill for the Mega Python vs. Gatoroid science fiction mov...
Figure 1.7 Rice production occurs in “managed” wetlands throughout Asia and ...
Figure 1.8 Cranberry wet harvesting is accomplished by flooding bogs in seve...
Figure 1.9 Harvesting of peat, or “turf,” as a fuel has been a tradition in ...
Figure 1.10 Large‐scale peat mining in Estonia.
Figure 1.11 The vast seasonally flooded Okavango Delta of northern Botswana ...
Figure 1.12 Intense ecotourism interest in the wetlands in Asia is shown by ...
Figure 1.13 Federal Migratory Bird Hunting and Conservation Stamps, also kno...
Chapter 2
Figure 2.1 Wetlands are often located (a) between dry terrestrial systems an...
Figure 2.2 The three‐component basis of a wetland definition: hydrology, phy...
Chapter 3
Figure 3.1 General extent of wetlands of the world determined as a composite...
Figure 3.2 Distribution of wetlands with latitude based on data from Matthew...
Figure 3.3 Major international wetlands discussed in this chapter.
Figure 3.4 The Florida Everglades including (a) its “river of grass,” (b) co...
Figure 3.5 Washington's Ditch in the Great Dismal Swamp in eastern Virginia....
Figure 3.6 Oblique aerial view of prairie pothole wetlands, showing many sma...
Figure 3.7 The Black Swamp as it probably existed 200 years ago in northwest...
Figure 3.8 Coastal marshlands of the Mississippi River Delta in southern Lou...
Figure 3.9 Wetland scientists botanizing in a Scirpus americanus marsh adjac...
Figure 3.10 Snow geese at Cap Tourmente National Wildlife Area, Quebec, Cana...
Figure 3.11 Extensive peatlands and marshes of Hudson Bay lowlands support m...
Figure 3.12 Athabasca River in the Peace–Athabasca Delta in Jaspar National ...
Figure 3.13 Freshwater marsh at the natural reserve of the Coastal Research ...
Figure 3.14 Major wetland areas of tropical South America.
Figure 3.15 Palo Verde National Park in western Costa Rica: (a) seasonally f...
Figure 3.16 Mangroves of the Orinoco River delta in Venezuela.
Figure 3.17 The seasonally flooded Pantanal of South America is a haven to a...
Figure 3.18 When the Amazon River is flooded annually, it is possible to boa...
Figure 3.19 The Camargue of the Rhone River delta in southern France is high...
Figure 3.20 Estimated extent of wetlands in the present‐day Netherlands and ...
Figure 3.21 Konik horses (descended from the Tarpan wild horses of Western E...
Figure 3.22 Lotus bed in the Volga Delta, Russia.
Figure 3.23 The Endla Bog in central Estonia.
Figure 3.24 Map of major wetland areas of Africa.
Figure 3.25 The Okavango Delta of Botswana, southern Africa: (a) Map of wetl...
Figure 3.26 Wildlife is abundant in the Rift Valley lakes and wetlands. This...
Figure 3.27 Wetlands and wildlife of the Rift Valley of northern Tanzania in...
Figure 3.28 African reef heron (Egretta gularis) in mangrove prop roots in S...
Figure 3.29 A billabong of New South Wales, Australia, showing bulrushes, ri...
Figure 3.30 Freshwater wetland in the Swan Coastal Plain, Western Australia....
Figure 3.31 Kahikatea Swamp in the background with Okarito Lagoon in the for...
Figure 3.32 Peatland in the lower Waikato River basin, about 60 km south of ...
Figure 3.33 Keoladeo National Park, Bharatpur, India, during flooding season...
Figure 3.34 Wetlands of China and its neighboring countries discussed in thi...
Figure 3.35 Marshes on the eastern extent of Chongming Island in the Yangtze...
Figure 3.36 Red‐crowned cranes at Momoge National Nature Reserve in Jilin Pr...
Figure 3.37 Qinghai Hu, western China: (a) A bird island with cormorants; (b...
Figure 3.38 Xixi National Wetland Park, Hangzhou, China.
Figure 3.39 Boardwalk through 61‐ha Hong Kong Wetland Park located in otherw...
Figure 3.40 View of Gandau Wetland Park, Taipei, Taiwan, from its nature cen...
Chapter 4
Figure 4.1 Conceptual diagram illustrating the effects of hydrology on wetla...
Figure 4.2 Hydroperiods for several different wetlands, presented in approxi...
Figure 4.3 Year‐to‐year fluctuations in wetland water levels in two regions:...
Figure 4.4 Relative water levels in two seasonally saturated red maple swamp...
Figure 4.5 Generalized water budget for a wetland with corresponding terms a...
Figure 4.6 Annual water budgets for several wetlands. See Fig. 4.5 for symbo...
Figure 4.7 Fate of precipitation in (a) a forested wetland and (b) a marsh. ...
Figure 4.8 Rating curve for streamflow determination as a function of stream...
Figure 4.9 Control structures such as the V‐notched weir shown here can be u...
Figure 4.10 River hydrograph from northeastern Illinois, showing discharge a...
Figure 4.11 Relationships among streamflow (discharge), stream depth, and re...
Figure 4.12 Possible discharge–recharge interchanges between wetlands and gr...
Figure 4.13 Novitski groundwater flow patterns for wetlands: (a) surface wat...
Figure 4.14 Diurnal water fluctuation in some wetlands can be used to estima...
Figure 4.15 Patterns of tides: (a) daily tides for a month and (b) seasonal ...
Figure 4.16 Concept of a seiche: a wind‐relaxation seiche caused by (a) a st...
Figure 4.17 Relationships between swamp productivity and hydrologic conditio...
Figure 4.18 Causal model that describes the major causes for increases and d...
Figure 4.19 Aquatic primary productivity in freshwater marshes as a function...
Figure 4.20 Production of Spartina alterniflora versus mean tidal range for ...
Figure 4.21 Organic carbon export from wetland‐dominated watersheds compared...
Figure 4.22 Placement of hydrology instruments in the landscape to estimate ...
Chapter 5
Figure 5.1 Percentage organic carbon required for a soil material to be call...
Figure 5.2 Permeability of peatland soil as a function of fiber content and ...
Figure 5.3 Relationship between cation exchange capacity and organic content...
Figure 5.4 Formation of oxidized rhizospheres, or pore linings, around the r...
Figure 5.5 Different kinds of redox concentrations, or mottles, in soil peds...
Figure 5.6 (a) Hydric soils can be identified by comparing the soil color wi...
Figure 5.7 Sequence in time of transformations in soil after flooding, begin...
Figure 5.8 Characteristics of many wetland soils showing a shallow oxidized ...
Figure 5.9 Design of (a, b) constructed redox probes and (c) possible deploy...
Chapter 6
Figure 6.1 Components of a wetland nutrient budget, including inflows, outfl...
Figure 6.2 A wetland can serve as an (a) inorganic nutrient sink, (b) source...
Figure 6.3 The nitrogen cycle in wetlands. Major pathways illustrated are ni...
Figure 6.4 Seasonal patterns of denitrification and associated environmental...
Figure 6.5 Relationship between denitrification and water temperature for th...
Figure 6.6 Seasonal nitrous oxide fluxes under different hydrologic conditio...
Figure 6.7 The sulfur cycle in wetlands. Major pathways illustrated are sulf...
Figure 6.8 The carbon cycle in wetlands. Major pathways include photosynthes...
Figure 6.9 Relationships between hydrologic conditions and methane emissions...
Figure 6.10 The phosphorus cycle in wetlands. Major pathways illustrated are...
Figure 6.11 Cumulative frequency curves for concentrations of various dissol...
Figure 6.12 Model of major chemical storages and flows in a forested wetland...
Figure 6.13 Annual phosphorus budget for alluvial cypress swamp in southern ...
Figure 6.14 Annual wetland nutrient budgets for (a) nitrogen and (b) carbon ...
Chapter 7
Figure 7.1 Photomicrographs of Spartina alterniflora roots from salt marshes...
Figure 7.2 Illustrations of morphological adaptations to flooding and waterl...
Figure 7.3 [Gas flow.ai] Diel variation of solar energy, temperature, intern...
Figure 7.4 Schematic of metabolic respiration pathway in flood‐tolerant plan...
Figure 7.5 Classical hydrarch succession of freshwater wetlands: (a) success...
Figure 7.6 Successional sequences reconstructed from stratigraphic and palyn...
Figure 7.7 Functional classification of 43 species of plants from various we...
Figure 7.8 General sieve model of Gleasonian wetland (freshwater marsh) succ...
Figure 7.9 Centrifugal organization models illustrating (a) transitions from...
Figure 7.10 Renewal rates of water and nitrogen loading of major wetland typ...
Figure 7.11 Patterns of emergent macrophyte vegetation structure and functio...
Figure 7.12 (a) Emergent macrophyte community diversity and (b) cumulative o...
Figure 7.13 Landscape patterns in Louisiana wetlands: (a) a physically contr...
Chapter 8
Figure 8.1 Coastal wetlands lie on gradients of increasing salinity from inl...
Figure 8.2 The area of deltaic plains of selected major river systems of the...
Figure 8.3 Distribution of (a) salt marshes of the world and (b) wetlands in...
Figure 8.4 Drainage patterns of tidal creeks in young and mature Spartina al...
Figure 8.5 The relation of a salt flat's interstitial soil salinity and its ...
Figure 8.6 Idealized zonation of communities on a typical North Atlantic sal...
Figure 8.7 Zonation of vegetation in typical salt marshes: (a) southeastern ...
Figure 8.8 Salt marsh food web, showing the major producer and consumer grou...
Figure 8.9 Hierarchy of estuarine‐coastal landscape that includes estuarine ...
Figure 8.10 Cross sections across typical freshwater tidal marshes, showing ...
Figure 8.11 Fish and shellfish that use tidal freshwater marshes and other c...
Figure 8.12 Nitrogen budget for a 23‐ha tidal freshwater marsh in coastal Ma...
Figure 8.13 Distribution of mangrove wetlands (a) in the world and (b) by la...
Figure 8.14 (a) The Florida, U.S., peninsula showing the long‐term increase ...
Figure 8.15 Classification of mangrove wetlands according to four hydrogeomo...
Figure 8.16 Classic zonation pattern of Florida mangrove swamp with illustra...
Figure 8.17 Model showing how climate change in sea level, temperature, atmo...
Figure 8.18 Adaptations of mangroves, including (a) prop roots of red mangro...
Figure 8.19 Carbon storage in Indo‐Pacific tropical mangrove forests compare...
Figure 8.20 Organic carbon fluxes through mangrove swamps: inflows (litterfa...
Figure 8.21 Detritus‐based food web in south Florida estuary showing major c...
Figure 8.22 Life histories and habitat utilization of six fish species inclu...
Chapter 9
Figure 9.1 Frequency distribution of salinity, as measured by specific condu...
Figure 9.2 Cross sections of vegetation through freshwater marshes, indicati...
Figure 9.3 Experimental results of four different growing season hydroperiod...
Figure 9.4 Species richness versus vegetation biomass in 0.25‐m2 quadrants f...
Figure 9.5 Typical distribution of birds across a freshwater marsh from open...
Figure 9.6 Distribution of above‐ground and below‐ground biomass of emergent...
Figure 9.7 Fluxes of nitrogen and phosphorus through a river bulrush (Scirpu...
Figure 9.8 Distribution of dominant forested wetland trees in the southeaste...
Figure 9.9 General profile and flow pattern of major types of deepwater swam...
Figure 9.10 Annual water budgets for (a) Florida cypress dome and (b) southe...
Figure 9.11 Major river geomorphic features of mesic riparian ecosystems (fl...
Figure 9.12 Distinction of leaves between top: bald cypress (Taxodium distic...
Figure 9.13 General relationship between vegetation associations and floodpl...
Figure 9.14 Among the several features of vegetation in cypress swamps are (...
Figure 9.15 Relationships between hydrologic conditions and tree productivit...
Figure 9.16 The relationship between net primary productivity of floodplain ...
Chapter 10
Figure 10.1 Area of abundant peatlands in the boreal zone (taiga) of the Nor...
Figure 10.2 Typical profile of a quaking bog.
Figure 10.3 (a) Regional linkages between groundwater and raised bogs in the...
Figure 10.4 Two oblique aerial images of string bogs in North America: (a) a...
Figure 10.5 Classification of peatlands based on hydrology. Two major catego...
Figure 10.6 Soil pH as a function of organic content of peat soil. ...
Figure 10.7 Distribution of two bryophyte families (a) Sphagnaceae and (b) A...
Figure 10.8 The pitcher plant (Sarracenia purpurea) including invertebrates ...
Figure 10.9 Comparison of bird distribution, typical of a lake‐border bog in...
Figure 10.10 Diagrams of the energy flow in peatlands: (a) Cedar Bog Lake, M...
Figure 10.11 Nitrogen budgets for two northern ombrotrophic bogs: (a) perche...
Figure 10.12 Methane flux as a function of mean water level in Canadian peat...
Chapter 11
Figure 11.1 Coastal ecosystem classification system based on latitude (and, ...
Figure 11.2 Current U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service wetland and deepwater hab...
Figure 11.3 Basis of the hydrogeomorphic (HGM) classification system: (a) ge...
Figure 11.4 Sample of map of wetlands in Naples, Florida, created from the U...
Chapter 12
Figure 12.1 Wetland political cartoons were frequent in the early 1990s in t...
Figure 12.2 Estimated extent of wetlands in the lower 48 states of the Unite...
Figure 12.3 Map of the United States listing or showing 10 regions for which...
Figure 12.4 Flowchart of steps involved in making a wetland determination wh...
Chapter 13
Figure 13.1 Illustration of provisioning, regulating, and cultural ecosystem...
Figure 13.2 Three fur‐bearing animals found in wetlands that have been histo...
Figure 13.3 Two wetland waterfowl known around the world: (a) Mallard (Anas ...
Figure 13.4 Herons are consummate symbols of wetlands throughout the world. ...
Figure 13.5 Relationship between wetland area and fish harvests. The linear ...
Figure 13.6 The American alligator (Alligator mississippiensis) in Corkscrew...
Figure 13.7 The general effect of wetlands on streamflow and stormwater runo...
Figure 13.8 The general protection that coastal wetlands provide to buffer c...
Figure 13.9 Path of Hurricane Katrina across Florida, the Gulf of Mexico, Lo...
Figure 13.10 Two case studies of the marginal benefits of natural wetlands v...
Chapter 14
Figure 14.1 Proper wetland mitigation with comparisons with both what has be...
Figure 14.2 Patterns of mitigation for wetland loss in the United States for...
Figure 14.3 Illustrations of Florida Everglades wetland restoration: (a) his...
Figure 14.4 The Mesopotamian Marshlands of Iraq, with shading indicating ext...
Figure 14.5 Bois‐des‐Bel experimental peatland on the southern shore of the ...
Figure 14.6 Delaware Bay salt marsh restoration from 1995 through present: (...
Figure 14.7 Hackensack Meadowlands, New Jersey, in New York City metropolita...
Figure 14.8 Restoration of Skjern River and its floodplain wetlands in weste...
Figure 14.9 Soil organic matter development in two 1‐ha created experimental...
Chapter 15
Figure 15.1 Three types of wetland treatment systems: (a) natural wetland, (...
Figure 15.2 Houghton Lake treatment wetland in Michigan, where treated waste...
Figure 15.3 (a) A 0.4‐ha acid mine drainage treatment wetland in southeaster...
Figure 15.4 General design of a stormwater treatment wetland.
Figure 15.5 Freedom Park stormwater treatment wetlands in Naples Florida: (a...
Figure 15.6 Stormwater treatment areas (STAs) downstream of the Everglades A...
Figure 15.7 Caernarvon diversion from the Mississippi River immediately down...
Figure 15.8 Olentangy River Wetland Research Park: (a) photo of pumped and n...
Figure 15.9 Decrease in nitrate‐nitrogen by (a) mass, and (b) concentration ...
Figure 15.10 Soil cross‐sections of (a) surface‐flow wetland, and (b) subsur...
Figure 15.11 Results of a study comparing eight macrophytes commonly used in...
Figure 15.12 Costs of treatment wetlands versus wetland size for surface wat...
Chapter 16
Figure 16.1 Observed globally averaged land and ocean surface temperature an...
Figure 16.2 Relative global mean sea level for 1955 to 2014 (Grey line recon...
Figure 16.3 Concentration of CO2 in atmosphere at Mauna Loa Observatory in H...
Figure 16.4 Global carbon budget with estimated role of wetlands in the carb...
Figure 16.5 Total soil carbon accumulation in two primary‐succession, flowth...
Figure 16.6 Conceptual model of CH4 emissions, ebullition, and CH4 oxidation...
Figure 16.7 Mean methane flux rates from experimental wetlands in created ri...
Figure 16.8 Wetland carbon simulation model designed to estimate the net eff...
Figure 16.9 Carbon budget of the 1,500‐km2 Rapid River watershed in the Lake...
Figure 16.10 Coastal wetland areas most vulnerable to a sea‐level rise of 44...
Figure 16.11 Coastal wetland management scenarios in the face of sea‐level r...
Figure 16.12 Simulation results for locations of highly favorable water and ...
Cover Page
Title Page
Copyright Page
Preface
About the Companion Website
Table of Contents
Begin Reading
Glossary
Index
Wiley End User License Agreement
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Sixth Edition
William J. Mitsch
Florida Gulf Coast University, Naples, FL and The Ohio State University, Columbus, OH, USA
James G. Gosselink†
Louisiana State University, Baton Rouge, LA, USA
Christopher J. Anderson
Auburn University, Auburn, AL, USA
M. Siobhan Fennessy
Kenyon College, Gambier, OH, USA
This sixth edition first published 2023© 2023 John Wiley & Sons Ltd
Edition HistoryJohn Wiley & Sons, Inc. (5e, 2015; 4e, 2007; 3e, 2000; 2e, 1993); Van Nostrand Reinhold (1e, 1986)
All rights reserved. No part of this publication may be reproduced, stored in a retrieval system, or transmitted, in any form or by any means, electronic, mechanical, photocopying, recording or otherwise, except as permitted by law. Advice on how to obtain permission to reuse material from this title is available at http://www.wiley.com/go/permissions.
The right of William J. Mitsch, James G. Gosselink, Christopher J. Anderson, and M. Siobhan Fennessy to be identified as the authors of this work has been asserted in accordance with law.
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Library of Congress Cataloging‐in‐Publication DataNames: Mitsch, William J., author. | Anderson, Christopher J. (Professor), author. | Fennessy, M. Siobhan, author.Title: Wetlands / William J. Mitsch, Christopher J. Anderson, M. Siobhan Fennessy.Description: Sixth edition. | Hoboken, NJ : Wiley, 2023. | Includes index.Identifiers: LCCN 2023003264 (print) | LCCN 2023003265 (ebook) | ISBN 9781119826934 (cloth) | ISBN 9781119826941 (adobe pdf) | ISBN 9781119826958 (epub)Subjects: LCSH: Wetland ecology–United States. | Wetlands–United States. | Wetland management–United States.Classification: LCC QH104 .M57 2023 (print) | LCC QH104 (ebook) | DDC 577.68–dc23/eng/20230130LC record available at https://lccn.loc.gov/2023003264LC ebook record available at https://lccn.loc.gov/2023003265
Cover Design: WileyCover Image: Courtesy of Dr.William J.Mitsch
This is the sixth edition of Wetlands—we have updated the book every seven or eight years from 1986 when Van Nostrand Reinhold published the first edition. This sixth edition (referred to here as Wetlands 6) is being published 8 years after the Wetlands 5 was published in 2015.
There are several substantial changes in this sixth edition. First, the book length is shorter by 9% in page numbers (from 736 to 672) as we continue to hear from students that the book is too much reading for a one‐semester course (usual length of wetland courses). We also shortened the number of chapters from 19 to 16 by decreasing the number of Ecosystem chapters from 5 to these 3:
Chapter 8
: Coastal Wetlands
Chapter 9
: Freshwater Marshes and Swamps
Chapter 10
: Peatlands.
One of the most notable changes in Wetland 6 is the incorporation of more than 80 color photos and other imagery throughout the book, particularly in Chapter 1, Wetland History and Science (with 11 color images) and Chapter 3, The World’s Wetlands (with 32 color images).
The management section at the end of the book now features six chapters, three of which are on wetland classification, wetland legal matters, and ecosystem services, and three of which focus on wetland creation and restoration, wetlands and water quality, and wetlands and climate change. As expected, the climate change chapter is all about change.
You will note that Bill Mitsch and Jim Gosselink continue to be listed as authors, although Jim sadly died on January 18, 2015, at the age of 83, just as the fifth edition was coming out. We keep him in our memory and in the authorship because of his major contributions to several earlier editions.
Please note that we have added two additional authors. Christopher J. Anderson is a Professor of Wetland Ecology at the Auburn University College of Forestry, Wildlife and Environment. He specializes in coastal wetlands with an emphasis on functional changes related to land use, climate, and hydrologic change. M. Siobhan Fennessy is the Philip and Sheila Jordan Professor of Environmental Studies and Biology at Kenyon College. She is a wetland ecosystem ecologist studying the response of wetland plant communities and biogeochemical cycles to human disturbance, how that disturbance can be quantified and then reversed by ecological restoration, and the role of wetlands in climate mitigation.
Ruthmarie Mitsch provided wonderful assistance in editing and proofreading several parts of this edition. Anne Mischo provided many of the drawings used in this book. Li Zhang needs to be especially thanked for the updates and technical details she provided. We also appreciate the input, illustrations, or insight provided by many of our wetlander peers, too many over our six editions to list separately.
We also appreciate the professional effort on the part of the publishing editors and assistants at John Wiley & Sons, Inc., especially our first managing editor, Rosie Hayden. It has always been a pleasure to work with the Wiley brand.
William J. Mitsch, Ph.D.
Professor Emeritus, The Ohio State UniversityProfessor Emeritus, Florida Gulf Coast UniversityBonita Springs, FL, and Columbus, OH, USA
James G. Gosselink, Ph.D. (RIP)
Christopher J. Anderson, Ph.D.
Professor, Auburn UniversityAuburn, AL, USA
M. Siobhan Fennessy, Ph.D.
Professor, Kenyon CollegeGambier, OH, USA
May 2023
This book is accompanied by a companion website for Instructors.
www.wiley.com/go/mitsch/wetlands6
This website includes:
Figures and Tables from the book
Sample syllabus
Wetlands are found in almost all regions of the world. Although many human cultures have lived among and even depended on wetlands for centuries, the modern history of wetlands until the 1970s is fraught with misunderstanding and fear, as described in much of our early Western literature and even in current human media such as science fiction movies. Wetlands have been destroyed at alarming rates throughout the developed and developing worlds. Now, as their many benefits are being recognized, wetland conservation has become the norm. In many parts of the world, wetlands are now revered, protected, and restored; in other parts, they are still being drained for human development.
Because wetlands have properties that are not adequately covered by current terrestrial and aquatic ecology paradigms, wetland science has become a unique discipline encompassing many fields, including terrestrial and aquatic ecology, chemistry, hydrology, and engineering. Wetland management, as the applied side of wetland science, requires an understanding of the scientific aspects of wetlands balanced with legal, institutional, and economic realities.
Wetlands are among the most important ecosystems on Earth. In the great scheme of things, the swampy environment of the Carboniferous period produced and preserved many of the fossil fuels on which our society now depends. In more recent biological and human time periods, wetlands have been valuable as sources, sinks, and transformers of a multitude of chemical, biological, and genetic materials. Although the value of wetlands for fish and wildlife protection has been known for centuries, some of the other benefits have been identified more recently.
Wetlands are sometimes described as kidneys of the landscape because they function as the downstream receivers of water and waste from both natural and human sources. They stabilize water supplies, thus mitigating both floods and drought. They have been found to cleanse polluted waters, protect shorelines, and recharge groundwater aquifers.
Wetlands also have been called nature's supermarkets because of the extensive food chain and rich biodiversity that they support. They are where a great variety of organisms go to eat or be eaten. They play major roles in the landscape by providing unique habitats for a wide variety of flora and fauna. Now that we have become concerned about the health of our entire planet, wetlands are being described by some as important carbon sinks and climate stabilizers on a global scale.
These values of wetlands are now recognized worldwide and have led to wetland conservation, protection laws, regulations, and management plans. But our history before current times had been to drain, ditch, and fill them, never as quickly or as effectively as was undertaken in countries such as the United States beginning in the early 1800s. In some regions of the world that scale of wetland destruction continues.
Wetlands have become the cause célèbre for conservation‐minded people and organizations throughout the world, in part because they support some of the most biodiverse assemblages of plants, animals, and microbes. Scientists, engineers, lawyers, and regulators are now finding it both useful and necessary to become specialists in wetland ecology and wetland management to understand, preserve, and even reconstruct these fragile ecosystems. This book is for these aspiring wetland specialists as well as for those who would like to know more about the structure and function of these unique ecosystems. It is a book about wetlands—how they work and how we manage them.
There is no way to estimate the impact humans have had on the global extent of wetlands except to observe that, in developed and heavily populated regions of the world, the impact has ranged from significant to total. The importance of wetland environments to the development and sustenance of cultures throughout human history, however, is unmistakable. Since early civilization, many cultures have learned to live in harmony with wetlands and have benefited economically from surrounding wetlands, whereas other cultures quickly drained the landscape. The ancient Babylonians, Egyptians, and the Aztec in what is now Mexico developed specialized systems of water delivery involving wetlands. Major modern cities of the world, such as Chicago and Washington, DC, in the United States; Christchurch, New Zealand; and Paris, France, stand on sites that were once part wetland. Many large airports, such as in Boston, New Orleans, and New York, are situated on former wetlands.
While global generalizations about human cultures and their respect (or not) are sometimes misleading, there was and is a propensity in Eastern cultures not to drain valuable wetlands entirely, as has been done in the West, but to work within the aquatic landscape, albeit in a heavily managed way. Dugan (1993) makes the interesting comparison between hydraulic civilizations (European in origin) that controlled water flow through the use of dikes, dams, pumps, and drainage tile, in part because water was only seasonally plentiful, and aquatic civilizations (Asian in origin) that better adapted to their surroundings of water‐abundant floodplains and deltas and took advantage of nature's pulses, such as flooding. It is because the former approach of controlling nature rather than working with it is so dominant today that we find such high losses of wetlands worldwide.
Wetlands have been and continue to be part of many human cultures in the world. Coles and Coles (1989) referred to the people who live in proximity to wetlands and whose culture is linked to them as wetlanders.
Some of the original wetlander cultures are described here. The Marsh Arabs of southern Iraq (Fig. 1.1) and the Camarguais of southern France's Rhone River Delta (Fig. 1.2) are two examples of ancient cultures that have lived in harmony and sustainably with their wetland environments for centuries. In North America, the Cajuns of Louisiana and several Native Americans tribes have lived in harmony with wetlands for hundreds of years. The Louisiana Cajuns, descendants of the French colonists of Acadia (present‐day Nova Scotia, Canada), were forced out of Nova Scotia by the English and moved to the Louisiana delta in the last half of the eighteenth century. Their society and culture flourished within the bayou wetlands (Fig. 1.3). The Chippewa in Wisconsin and Minnesota have harvested and reseeded wild rice (Zizania aquatica) along the littoral zone of lakes and streams for centuries (Fig. 1.4). They have a saying: “Wild rice is like money in the bank.”
Likewise, several Native American tribes lived and even thrived in large‐scale wetlands, such as the Florida Everglades. These include the ancient Calusa, a culture that based its economy on estuarine fisheries rather than agriculture. The Calusa disappeared primarily as a result of imported European disease. In the nineteenth century, the Seminoles and especially one of its tribes, the Miccosukee, moved south to the Everglades while being pursued by the U.S. Army during the Seminole Indian wars. They never surrendered. The Miccosukee adapted to living in hammock‐style camps spread throughout the Everglades and relied on fishing, hunting, and harvesting of native fruits from the hammocks (Fig. 1.5). A quote in a Florida newspaper by Miccosukee tribal member Michael Frank is poignant yet hopeful about living sustainably in the Florida Everglades:
Figure 1.1The Marsh Arabs of present‐day southern Iraq lived for centuries on artificial islands in marshes at the confluence of the Tigris and Euphrates rivers in Mesopotamia. The marshes were mostly drained in the 1990s and are now being restored.
(Hassan Janali/Wikimedia Commons)
Figure 1.2The Camargue region of southern France in the Rhone River Delta is a historically important wetland region in Europe where Camarguais have lived since the Middle Ages.
(Uryadnikov Sergey/Adobe Stock)
Figure 1.3A Cajun lumberjack camp in the Atchafalaya Swamp of coastal Louisiana.
(Courtesy of Louisiana Collection, Tulane University Library)
Figure 1.4“Ricer” poling and “knocking” wild rice (Zizania aquatica) into canoes as Anishinaabe (Chippewa, Ojibwe) tribes and others have done for hundreds of years on Rice Lake in Crow Wing County, Minnesota.
(With permission of John Overland)
Figure 1.5The Miccosukee Native Americans adapted to life in the Florida Everglades in hammock‐style camps. They relied on fishing, hunting, and harvesting of native fruits from the hammocks.
(Photo by W. J. Mitsch)
We were taught to never, ever leave the Everglades. If you leave the Everglades you will lose your culture, you lose your language, you lose your way of life.
—Michael Frank, as quoted by William E. Gibson, “Pollution Is Killing Everglades, Miccosukee Warn,” South Florida Sun Sentinel, August 10, 2013
With all of these important cultures vitally depending on wetlands, not to mention the aesthetics of a landscape in which water and land often provide a striking panorama, one might expect wetlands to be more respected by humanity; this has certainly not always been the case. Wetlands have been depicted as sinister and forbidding and as having little economic value throughout most of Western literature and history. For example, in the Divine Comedy, Dante describes a marsh of the Styx in Upper Hell as the final resting place for the wrathful:
Thus we pursued our path round a wide arc of that ghast pool,
Between the soggy marsh and arid shore,
Still eyeing those who gulp the marish [marsh] foul.
Centuries later, Carl Linnaeus, crossing the Lapland peatlands in 1732, compared that region to that same Styx of Hell:
Shortly afterwards began the muskegs, which mostly stood under water; these we had to cross for miles; think with what misery, every step up to our knees. The whole of this land of the Lapps was mostly muskeg, hinc vocavi Styx. Never can the priest so describe hell, because it is no worse. Never have poets been able to picture Styx so foul, since that is no fouler.
In the eighteenth century, an Englishman who surveyed the Great Dismal Swamp on the Virginia–North Carolina border and is credited with naming it described the wetland as
[a] horrible desert, the foul damps ascend without ceasing, corrupt the air and render it unfit for respiration … Never was Rum, that cordial of Life, found more necessary than in this Dirty Place.
—Colonel William Byrd III, “Historie of the Dividing Line Betwixt Virginia and North Carolina,” in The Westover Manuscripts, written 1728–1736 (Petersburg, VA: E. and J. C. Ruffin, printers, 1841)
Even those who study and have been associated with wetlands have been belittled in literature:
Hardy went down to botanise in the swamp, while Meredith climbed towards the sun. Meredith became, at his best, a sort of daintily dressed Walt Whitman: Hardy became a sort of village atheist brooding and blaspheming over the village idiot.
—G. K. Chesterton, Chapter 12 in The Victorian Age in Literature (New York, NY: Henry Holt and Company, 1913)
The English language is filled with words that suggest negative images of wetlands. We get bogged down in detail; we are swamped with work. Even the mythical bogeyman, the character featured in stories that frighten children in many countries, may be associated with European bogs. Grendel, the mythical monster in Beowulf, one of the oldest surviving pieces of Old English literature and Germanic epic, comes from the peatlands of present‐day northern Europe:
Grendel, the famous stalker through waste places, who held the rolling marshes in his sway, his fen and his stronghold. A man cut off from joy, he had ruled the domain of his huge misshapen kind a long time, since God had condemned him in condemning the race of Cain.
—Beowulf, translated by William Alfred, Medieval Epics (New York, NY: The Modern Library, 1993)
Hollywood has continued the depiction of the sinister and foreboding nature of wetlands and their inhabitants, in the tradition of Grendel, with movies such as the classic Creature from the Black Lagoon (1954), a comic‐book‐turned‐cult‐movie Swamp Thing (1982), and its sequel Return of the Swamp Thing (1989). Even Swamp Thing evolved in the 1980s from a feared creature to a protector of wetlands, biodiversity, and the environment. A more modern approach to scaring and entertaining the public with megafauna from the swamps is a science fiction movie Mega Python vs. Gatoroid (2011; Fig. 1.6), set in the Florida Everglades exaggerates much of the current dynamics about the Florida Everglades including conservation, invasive species, genetically altered organisms, fundraising by conservationists, and conflicts among hunters, conservation agencies, and environmentalists. In some respects, current life in the Everglades imitates art. Big snakes and alligators from wetlands continue to strike fear.
Figure 1.6The playbill for the Mega Python vs. Gatoroid science fiction movie published by The Asylum in 2011 (http://www.theasylum.cc).
(With permission of David Latt)
As long as wetlands remain more difficult to stroll through than a forest and more difficult to cross by boat than a lake, they will remain misunderstood by the general public unless a continued effort of education takes place.
Domestic wetlands such as rice paddies feed an estimated half of the world's population (Fig. 1.7). Countless other plant and animal products are harvested from wetlands throughout the world. Many aquatic plants besides rice, such as Manchurian wild rice (Zizania latifolia), are harvested as vegetables in China. Cranberries are harvested from bogs, and the industry continues to thrive today in North America (Fig. 1.8). Coastal marshes in northern Europe, the British Isles, and New England were used for centuries and are still used today for grazing of animals and production of salt hay. Salt marsh coastlines of Europe are still used for the production of salt.
Wetlands can be important sources of protein. The production of fish in shallow ponds or rice paddies developed several thousands of years ago in China and Southeast Asia, and crayfish harvesting is still practiced in the wetlands of Louisiana and the Philippines. Shallow lakes and wetlands are an important provider of protein in many parts of sub‐Saharan Africa.
Russians, Finns, Estonians, and Irish, among other cultures, have mined their peatlands for centuries, using peat as a source of energy in small‐scale production (Fig. 1.9) and in large‐scale extraction processes (Fig. 1.10). Sphagnum peat is now harvested for horticultural purposes throughout the world. In southwestern New Zealand, for example, surface sphagnum has been harvested since the 1970s for export as a potting medium. Reeds and even the mud from coastal and inland marshes have been used for thatching for roofs in Europe, Iraq, Japan, and China as well as in wall construction, as fence material, and for lamps and other household goods. Coastal mangroves are harvested for timber, food, and tannin in many countries throughout Indo‐Malaysia, East Africa, and Central and South America.
Figure 1.7Rice production occurs in “managed” wetlands throughout Asia and other parts of the world. Half of the world's population is fed by rice paddy systems.
(Photo by W. J. Mitsch)
Figure 1.8Cranberry wet harvesting is accomplished by flooding bogs in several regions of North America. The cranberry plant (Vaccinium macrocarpon) is native to the bogs and marshes of North America and was first cultivated in Massachusetts. It is now also an important fruit crop in Wisconsin, New Jersey, Washington, Oregon, and parts of Canada.
(Courtesy of Ocean Spray Cranberries, Inc.)
Figure 1.9Harvesting of peat, or “turf,” as a fuel has been a tradition in several parts of the world, as shown by this scene of turf carts in Ireland.
Figure 1.10Large‐scale peat mining in Estonia.
(Photo by W. J. Mitsch)
Ecotourism is a modern version of wetland use. Wetlands have been the focus of attempts by several countries to increase tourist flow into their countries. The Okavango Delta in Botswana is one of the natural resource jewels of Africa, and protection of this wetland for tourists and hunters has been a priority in that country since the 1960s. Local tribes provide manpower for boat tours (in dugout canoes called mokoros) through the basin and assist with wildlife tours on the uplands as well (Fig. 1.11). In Senegal, West Africa, there is keen interest in attracting European birder tourists to the mangrove swamps along the Atlantic coastline. For many people, ecotourism in the wetlands is all about the wildlife and especially the birds (Fig. 1.12). It has been reported that bird‐watching, or “birding,” is a $32 billion per year industry in the United States alone.
The advantage of ecotourism as a management strategy is obvious—it provides income to the country where the wetland is found without requiring or even allowing resource harvest from the area. The potential disadvantage is that if the site becomes too popular, human pressures will begin to deteriorate the landscape and the very ecosystem that initially drew the tourism.
Figure 1.11The vast seasonally flooded Okavango Delta of northern Botswana in southern Africa is a mecca for ecotourism. The wetlands attract tourists, as shown in this illustration, and also wildlife hunting. In addition, the wetlands provide basic sustenance to these communities.
(Photo by W. J. Mitsch)
Figure 1.12Intense ecotourism interest in the wetlands in Asia is shown by (a) crowds that surround Lake Biwa in Shiga Prefecture, Japan, at a winter 2006 international wetlands forum, and (b) press coverage at the Ramsar Convention held in Changwon, Korea, in 2008.
(Photos by W. J. Mitsch)
Prior to the mid‐1970s, drainage and destruction of wetlands were accepted practices around the world and were even encouraged by specific government policies. Wetlands were replaced by agricultural fields and by commercial and residential development. Had those trends continued, wetlands would have been in danger of extinction in some parts of the world decades ago. Some countries and states, such as New Zealand and California and Ohio in the United States, reported 90 percent loss of their wetlands. Only through the combined activities of hunters and anglers, scientists and engineers, and lawyers and conservationists has the case been made for wetlands as a valuable resource whose destruction has serious economic as well as ecological and aesthetic consequences for the nations of the world. This increased level of respect was reflected in activities such as the sale of federal “duck stamps” to waterfowl hunters that began in 1934 in the United States (Fig. 1.13); other countries, such as New Zealand, have followed suit. Approximately 2.4 million hectares (ha) of wetlands have been purchased or leased as waterfowl habitat by the U.S. duck stamp program alone since 1934.
Figure 1.13Federal Migratory Bird Hunting and Conservation Stamps, also known as Duck Stamps: top first duck stamp with Mallards honoring duck stamps program
(Jay N. “Ding” Darling/Wikimedia Commons/Public Domain)
and bottom, 2023 duck stamp with Redheads
(James Hautman/U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service).
The U.S. government now supports a variety of other wetland protection programs through at least a dozen federal agencies; individual states have also enacted wetland protection laws or have used existing statutes to preserve these valuable resources.
On an international scale, the Convention of Wetlands of International Importance, or the Ramsar Convention, a multinational agreement for the conservation of wetlands, has formally registered as “Wetlands of International Importance” 256 million ha of wetlands in the 172 contracting parties. The Ramsar Convention https://www.ramsar.org/ is the only global international treaty specific to the conservation and wise management of a specific ecosystem. Wetlands International (www.wetlands.org
