Wetlands

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Wetlands
Photo by R. Grippo
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Introduction

• Currently very hot area in resource management
• Called by many names ? swamps, bogs, fens,
  marshes, vernal ponds, pocosins (NC)
• Important in ecological restoration because gt50
  of natural wetlands have been destroyed

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Ecosystem Services of Wetlands

• Sponge effect - decrease flood peak and increase
  flow during drought

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Flooding in the mid-South, Nov., 2001
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Farmland flooding
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Ecosystem Services of Wetlands

• Sponge effect - decrease flood peak and increase
  flow during drought
• 2. Groundwater cleansing wetlands metabolize
  water ? increase water quality (biological
  filters)

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Ecosystem Services of Wetlands

• Sponge effect - decrease flood peak and increase
  flow during drought
• Groundwater cleansing wetlands metabolize water
  ? increase water quality (biological filters)
• Decreased shoreline erosion plants stabilize
  banks

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Lacustrine wetlands in Pine Barrens, southern NJ
Photo by R. Grippo
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Coastal mangrove swamp, Belize, Central America
Photo of R. Grippo and Penn State student
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Ecosystem Services of Wetlands

• Sponge effect - decrease flood peak and increase
  flow during drought
• Groundwater cleansing wetlands metabolize water
  ? increase water quality (biological filters)
• Decreased shoreline erosion plants stabilize
  banks
• High in primary productivity (2nd only to
  tropical rainforest) reduce greenhouse effect

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History of Wetland Destruction

• Towns usually built on stream corridors
• Tradition ? drain swamps (malaria, etc)
• Agriculture ? 87 of losses to increase tillable
  land
• Unequal distribution of losses
• Coasts
• Northern tier
• Southern coastal plain
• Major river basins

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History of Wetland Destruction

• Towns usually built on stream corridors
• Tradition ? drain swamps (malaria, etc)
• Agriculture ? 87 of losses to increase tillable
  land
• Unequal distribution of losses
• Coasts
• Northern tier
• Southern coastal plain
• Major river basins
• 1955 ? 1975 loss of of 550,000 acres of
  wetlands/year ? CWA passed to prevent further
  loss ? still lost 92,500 acres/yr up to 1985 ?
  reauthorize CWA , tighten laws much more ? still
  a big problem (saw on last weeks field trip)
• State with most wetlands Alaska (only lost 1
  so far)
• Note wetlands are the 1º target of restoration
  efforts because 50-90 of historical wetlands are
  gone

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Regulation

• Section 404 of Clean Water Act - No dredged or
  fill material can be placed into any waterway of
  the US (including wetlands)
• Note does not prevent draining, clearing or
  polluting wetlands (but hard to get permission to
  do)

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Section 404 (cont)

• Gives implicit authority to EPA, and Army Corps
  of Engineers to manage wetlands
• Note COE not allowed to delineate, only verify
• Section 404 permits - need before dredge/fill
• Note these are rarely denied, process just made
  so difficult that permit is usually withdrawn
• US FWS and NRCS (National Resource Conservation
  Service) place classification on soil that
  determines whether there is a wetlands or not.

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Wetland Conservation provision of the Food
Security Act of 1985 (Swampbuster)

• designed to discourage the conversion of wetlands
  into non-wetland areas
• Previously, farmers allowed to use converted
  (filled) wetlands as part of acreage for
  determining subsidy (USDA encouraged loss of
  wetlands!)
• Swampbuster - USDA now withholds certain
  subsidies if convert wetland

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Wetlands converted into agricultural land
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Definition of Wetlands

• Palustrine - swamp-like, no deep open water
• Lacustrine - associated with deep water lake,
  pond
• Riverine - associated with stream, river

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Lacustrine wetlands
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Riverine wetlands near State College, PA
Photo by R. Grippo
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Palustrine wetlands, Merchants Millpond, NC
Photo by R. Grippo
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Florida Everglades
Photo by R. Grippo
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Everglades along coast of Florida Bay
Photo by R. Grippo