Wetland Ecosystem Resilience: Protecting and Restoring Valuable Ecosystems

Abstract

HighlightsWe provide context and perspectives on articles in the Wetland Ecosystem Resilience collection.Insights gained on wetland resilience to sea-level rise and climate change, land use and drainage, and nutrients. Abstract. The objective of this article is to introduce a collection of articles that explore current research and scientific thought on wetland ecosystem resilience. The collection contains articles on wetland resilience to climate change, agricultural land use-driven change, and recreational land use, along with evaluations of wetland resilience through high-resolution monitoring and modeling tools. Wetland settings in the U.S. span tidal marshes and coastal plain non-riverine wetlands in North Carolina, prairie potholes in Iowa, Appalachian floodplain wetlands, and floating treatment wetlands in the Midwest. The studies in this collection found vertical accretion rates of 0.7 to 4.0 mm year-1 in a tidal marsh, a wide range of potential wetland hydroperiod responses to climate change, substantial decreases in inundation period, crop yield, and surface-water nitrate (but increases in phosphorus) in artificially drained potholes, and nitrate removal in carbon-amended floating treatment wetlands. Further work is needed to better understand how to design and enhance wetland systems in agricultural regions, better preserve wetland ecosystem services in areas affected by land use and climate change, and provide technical standards for the wide range of designs currently used for wetland treatment systems. Keywords: Agricultural wetlands, Resiliency, Temporal data, Treatment wetlands, Water chemistry, Water quality, Water treatment