Dataset Information

A synthesis of soil carbon and nitrogen recovery after wetland restoration and creation in the United States.

ABSTRACT: Wetland restoration and creation efforts have been widely attempted as a way to compensate for wetland losses and to recover wetland functions; however, to date, there has been no comprehensive evaluation of the efficacy of soil carbon (C) and nitrogen (N) content recovery at a regional scale. This meta-analysis synthesizes 48 articles to identify the general patterns of soil C and N change after wetland restoration and creation in the United States. Our results indicate that, after 11-20 years, soil C and N in restored and created wetlands are still significantly lower by 51.7% and 50.3%, respectively, than those in natural wetlands. The soil C and N in restored wetlands recovered faster than in created wetlands. Furthermore, the soil C in restored organic flat and created depressional wetlands recovered more rapidly than in restored and created hydrologically open wetlands (riverine and tidal), respectively. Mean annual temperature and soil texture were recognized as two crucial abiotic factors affecting soil C and N recovery. Linear regression analysis revealed a positive relationship between the restoration and creation effect sizes on soil C and N, indicating that wetlands may alleviate N limitations intrinsically during C recovery processes.

SUBMITTER: Yu L

PROVIDER: S-EPMC5554168 | biostudies-literature | 2017 Aug

REPOSITORIES: biostudies-literature

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A synthesis of soil carbon and nitrogen recovery after wetland restoration and creation in the United States.

Yu Lingfei L Huang Yao Y Sun Feifei F Sun Wenjuan W

Scientific reports 20170811 1

Wetland restoration and creation efforts have been widely attempted as a way to compensate for wetland losses and to recover wetland functions; however, to date, there has been no comprehensive evaluation of the efficacy of soil carbon (C) and nitrogen (N) content recovery at a regional scale. This meta-analysis synthesizes 48 articles to identify the general patterns of soil C and N change after wetland restoration and creation in the United States. Our results indicate that, after 11-20 years, ...[more]

PMID: 28801596

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Project description:Wetlands provide key functions in the landscape from improving water quality, to regulating flows, to providing wildlife habitat. Over half of the wetlands in the contiguous United States (CONUS) have been converted to agricultural and urban land uses. However, over the last several decades, research has shown the benefits of wetlands to hydrologic, chemical, biological processes, spurring the creation of government programs and private initiatives to restore wetlands. Initiatives tend to focus on individual wetland creation, yet the greatest benefits are achieved when strategic restoration planning occurs across a watershed or multiple watersheds. For watershed-level wetland restoration planning to occur, informative data layers on potential wetland areas are needed. We created an indicator of potential wetland areas (PWA), using nationally available datasets to identify characteristics that could support wetland ecosystems, including: poorly drained soils and low-relief landscape positions as indicated by a derived topographic data layer. We compared our PWA with the National Wetlands Inventory (NWI) from 11 states throughout the CONUS to evaluate their alignment. The state-level percentage of NWI-designated wetlands directly overlapping the PWA ranged from 39 to 95%. When we included NWI that was immediately adjacent to the overlapping NWI, our range of correspondence to NWI ranged from 60 to 99%. Wetland restoration is more likely on certain landscapes (e.g., agriculture) than others due to the lack of substantive infrastructure and the potential for the restoration of hydrology; therefore, we combined the National Land Cover Dataset (NLCD) with the PWA to identify potentially restorable wetlands on agricultural land (PRW-Ag). The PRW-Ag identified a total of over 46 million ha with the potential to support wetlands. The largest concentrations of PRW-Ag occurred in the glaciated corn belt of the upper Mississippi River from Ohio to the Dakotas and in the Mississippi Alluvial Valley. The PRW-Ag layer could assist land managers in identifying sites that may qualify for enrollment in conservation programs, where planners can coordinate restoration efforts, or where decision makers can target resources to optimize the services provided across a watershed or multiple watersheds.

Dataset Information

A synthesis of soil carbon and nitrogen recovery after wetland restoration and creation in the United States.

Publications

A synthesis of soil carbon and nitrogen recovery after wetland restoration and creation in the United States.

Similar Datasets

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