Wetlands and the ecological services that they provide on multiple spatial scales, from landscape down to soil

Abstract

In this chapter, we present a hierarchical framework to consider wetlands and their ecosystem services in landscape planning. Wetlands are important in a landscape setting as they are intricately linked to the water cycle, and they provide many ecosystem services. Collectively, wetlands can be regarded as wet ecological infrastructure. Wetlands can be categorized as different hydrogeo-morphic types, which all play a different role in the overall hydrology and lead to different ecosystem services. Ecosystem services can act on various spatial levels, and all of these levels need to be considered when conserving wetlands and securing their ecosystem benefits. The levels that can be recognized for this are the catchment level, the individual wetland (hydrogeomorphic unit) level, the wetland habitat level, and at the smallest scale even the soil level, as some of the most important ecosystem services are related to the biogeochemistry associated with wetland soils.