Dataset Information

Depressional wetlands affect watershed hydrological, biogeochemical, and ecological functions.

ABSTRACT: Depressional wetlands of the extensive U.S. and Canadian Prairie Pothole Region afford numerous ecosystem processes that maintain healthy watershed functioning. However, these wetlands have been lost at a prodigious rate over past decades due to drainage for development, climate effects, and other causes. Options for management entities to protect the existing wetlands, and their functions, may focus on conserving wetlands based on spatial location vis-à-vis a floodplain or on size limitations (e.g., permitting smaller wetlands to be destroyed but not larger wetlands). Yet the effects of such management practices and the concomitant loss of depressional wetlands on watershed-scale hydrological, biogeochemical, and ecological functions are largely unknown. Using a hydrological model, we analyzed how different loss scenarios by wetland size and proximal location to the stream network affected watershed storage (i.e., inundation patterns and residence times), connectivity (i.e., streamflow contributing areas), and export (i.e., streamflow) in a large watershed in the Prairie Pothole Region of North Dakota, USA. Depressional wetlands store consequential amounts of precipitation and snowmelt. The loss of smaller depressional wetlands (<3.0 ha) substantially decreased landscape-scale inundation heterogeneity, total inundated area, and hydrological residence times. Larger wetlands act as hydrologic "gatekeepers," preventing surface runoff from reaching the stream network, and their modeled loss had a greater effect on streamflow due to changes in watershed connectivity and storage characteristics of larger wetlands. The wetland management scenario based on stream proximity (i.e., protecting wetlands 30 m and ~450 m from the stream) alone resulted in considerable landscape heterogeneity loss and decreased inundated area and residence times. With more snowmelt and precipitation available for runoff with wetland losses, contributing area increased across all loss scenarios. We additionally found that depressional wetlands attenuated peak flows; the probability of increased downstream flooding from wetland loss was also consistent across all loss scenarios. It is evident from this study that optimizing wetland management for one end goal (e.g., protection of large depressional wetlands for flood attenuation) over another (e.g., protecting of small depressional wetlands for biodiversity) may come at a cost for overall watershed hydrological, biogeochemical, and ecological resilience, functioning, and integrity.

SUBMITTER: Evenson GR

PROVIDER: S-EPMC7724629 | biostudies-literature | 2018 Jun

REPOSITORIES: biostudies-literature

ACCESS DATA

Publications

Depressional wetlands affect watershed hydrological, biogeochemical, and ecological functions.

Evenson Grey R GR Golden Heather E HE Lane Charles R CR McLaughlin Daniel L DL D'Amico Ellen E

Ecological applications : a publication of the Ecological Society of America 20180507 4

Depressional wetlands of the extensive U.S. and Canadian Prairie Pothole Region afford numerous ecosystem processes that maintain healthy watershed functioning. However, these wetlands have been lost at a prodigious rate over past decades due to drainage for development, climate effects, and other causes. Options for management entities to protect the existing wetlands, and their functions, may focus on conserving wetlands based on spatial location vis-à-vis a floodplain or on size limitations ( ...[more]

PMID: 29437239

Similar Datasets

Project description:Species diversity is affected by processes operating at multiple spatial scales, although the most relevant scales that contribute to compositional variation and the temporal shifts of the involved mechanisms remain poorly explored. We studied spatial patterns of phytoplankton, rotifers and microcrustacean diversity across scales in a river floodplain system of the Danube in Austria under contrasting hydrological conditions (post-flood versus low water level).The species turnover between water sections (?2) and between wetlands (?3) was the major components of regional diversity for all studied groups, with species turnover between habitats (?1) as a minor contributor. ?1 diversity and ?2 diversity were lower than expected by chance in most cases, suggesting that communities are more homogeneous than expected at these scales. ?3 diversity was higher than expected by chance in many cases, indicating more distinct communities at the wetland level. Patterns were highly similar under different hydrological conditions, indicating no major immediate effect of flood events.Local environmental and spatial factors were similarly important in structuring phytoplankton, rotifer and microcrustacean communities in both hydrological conditions. Relevant environmental factors were spatially structured in post-flood conditions especially between sections, suggesting flood-driven homogenisation within the wetlands. Under low water level, spatial structuring of environment decreased and pure environmental factors gained relevance for phytoplankton and rotifers.Our results suggest that although ?2 diversity between water sections is a major component of regional diversity, long-term spatial processes responding to connectivity across the wetland structure phytoplankton, rotifer and microcrustacean communities. Aquatic sections within the limited spatial extent of the remaining floodplain areas appear more homogeneous than expected probably due to flood recurrence over the years.These results highlight that adequate planning of restoration and conservation strategies of floodplain wetlands should consider environmental heterogeneity together with long-term spatial processes.

Project description:Climate-change-induced alterations of oceanic conditions will lead to the ecological niches of some marine phytoplankton species disappearing, at least regionally. How will such losses affect the ecosystem and the coupled biogeochemical cycles? Here, we couch this question in terms of ecological redundancy (will other species be able to fill the ecological roles of the extinct species) and biogeochemical redundancy (can other species replace their biogeochemical roles). Prior laboratory and field studies point to a spectrum in the degree of redundancy. We use a global three-dimensional computer model with diverse planktonic communities to explore these questions further. The model includes 35 phytoplankton types that differ in size, biogeochemical function and trophic strategy. We run two series of experiments in which single phytoplankton types are either partially or fully eliminated. The niches of the targeted types were not completely reoccupied, often with a reduction in the transfer of matter from autotrophs to heterotrophs. Primary production was often decreased, but sometimes increased due to reduction in grazing pressure. Complex trophic interactions (such as a decrease in the stocks of a predator's grazer) led to unexpected reshuffling of the community structure. Alterations in resource utilization may cause impacts beyond the regions where the type went extinct. Our results suggest a lack of redundancy, especially in the 'knock on' effects on higher trophic levels. Redundancy appeared lowest for types on the edges of trait space (e.g. smallest) or with unique competitive strategies. Though highly idealized, our modelling findings suggest that the results from laboratory or field studies often do not adequately capture the ramifications of functional redundancy. The modelled, often counterintuitive, responses-via complex food web interactions and bottom-up versus top-down controls-indicate that changes in planktonic community will be key determinants of future ocean global change ecology and biogeochemistry.

Project description:BackgroundBiogeochemical exports from watersheds are modulated by the activity of microorganisms that function over micron scales. Here, we tested the hypothesis that meander-bound regions share a core microbiome and exhibit patterns of metabolic potential that broadly predict biogeochemical processes in floodplain soils along a river corridor.ResultsWe intensively sampled the microbiomes of floodplain soils located in the upper, middle, and lower reaches of the East River, Colorado. Despite the very high microbial diversity and complexity of the soils, we reconstructed 248 quality draft genomes representative of subspecies. Approximately one third of these bacterial subspecies was detected across all three locations at similar abundance levels, and ~ 15% of species were detected in two consecutive years. Within the meander-bound floodplains, we did not detect systematic patterns of gene abundance based on sampling position relative to the river. However, across meanders, we identified a core floodplain microbiome that is enriched in capacities for aerobic respiration, aerobic CO oxidation, and thiosulfate oxidation with the formation of elemental sulfur. Given this, we conducted a transcriptomic analysis of the middle floodplain. In contrast to predictions made based on the prominence of gene inventories, the most highly transcribed genes were relatively rare amoCAB and nxrAB (for nitrification) genes, followed by genes involved in methanol and formate oxidation, and nitrogen and CO2 fixation. Within all three meanders, low soil organic carbon correlated with high activity of genes involved in methanol, formate, sulfide, hydrogen, and ammonia oxidation, nitrite oxidoreduction, and nitrate and nitrite reduction. Overall, the results emphasize the importance of sulfur, one-carbon and nitrogen compound metabolism in soils of the riparian corridor.ConclusionsThe disparity between the scale of a microbial cell and the scale of a watershed currently limits the development of genomically informed predictive models describing watershed biogeochemical function. Meander-bound floodplains appear to serve as scaling motifs that predict aggregate capacities for biogeochemical transformations, providing a foundation for incorporating riparian soil microbiomes in watershed models. Widely represented genetic capacities did not predict in situ activity at one time point, but rather they define a reservoir of biogeochemical potential available as conditions change. Video abstract.

Dataset Information

Depressional wetlands affect watershed hydrological, biogeochemical, and ecological functions.

Publications

Depressional wetlands affect watershed hydrological, biogeochemical, and ecological functions.

Similar Datasets

OmicsDI is part of the ELIXIR infrastructure

Tweets