Riparian wetlands are temporarily or permanently inundated and/or water-logged zones along the margins of streams and rivers. They link permanent aquatic habitats with upland terrestrial habitats, and surface-water with groundwater. This chapter focuses on riparian wetlands associated with low-order tropical streams, which have been lesser studied than equivalent ecotones associated with large ...

Constructed wetlands are promising engineering technique that reproduce the conditions of the natural wetlands [1]. They have high water treatment capacity because of the intensive “work” of the plants and the microorganisms. Depending on the conditions various types of plants are growing: common reed (Phragmites australis), rush (Typha latifolia), iris, etc. (Fig. 1). These plants are stable t...

The many sheltered embayments, riverine estuaries and drowned river valleys of temperate eastern Australia support a large area and a wide diversity of coastal wetlands. This region also supports over one-half of the country’s population and includes its major tourist and industrial centres. The story of Cinderella provides an excellent simile for the status of coastal wetlands in this region o...

The succession of vegetation, soil development, water quality changes, and carbon and nitrogen dynamics are summarized in this article for a pair of 1-hectare flow-through-created riverine wetlands for their first 15 years. Wetland plant richness increased from 13 originally planted species to 116 species overall after 15 years, with most of the increase occurring in the first 5 years. The plan...

The northern salt marsh harvest mouse (Reithrodontomys raviventris halicoetes) is an endangered species endemic to the San Francisco Bay Estuary. Using a conservation behavior perspective, we examined how salt marsh harvest mice cope with both natural (daily tidal fluctuations) and anthropogenic (modification of tidal regime) changes in natural tidal wetlands and human-created diked wetlands, a...

—Densities of fecal indicator bacteria (FIB) represented by total coliforms, E. coli and enterococci were measured within tidal channels of the Ballona Wetlands (Los Angeles County) to see if the wetlands act as a sink or source for these bacteria and to measure increases in FIB densities during wet weather. Samples were collected on 10 days over a 1-yr period beginning February 2003 at four si...

Communities along the USA coast are highly vulnerable to coastal storms. Trends in population growth, climatic events and land use are likely to exacerbate future damages. Coastal management entities are faced with decisions about how to manage resources in a manner that improves environmental quality and provides the maximum benefit for coastal populations. This is particularly true along the ...

Dryland rivers have considerable flow variability, producing complex ecosystems, processes, and communities of organisms that vary over space and time. They are also among the more vulnerable of the world's ecosystems. A key strategy for conservation of dryland rivers is identifying and maintaining key sites for biodiversity conservation, particularly protecting the quantity and quality of flow...

Restoring historic lake-fringe wetlands is considered a favorable means of reducing lake phosphorus levels; however, it is unclear how various strategies for managing wetland connectivity influence phosphorus release. We investigated the relationships between temperature and soil characteristics of restored wetlands to identify management strategies that minimize external phosphorus loading to ...

In this study, we concentrate on the area potentials to preserve, restore or create freshwater wetland ecosystems in the European Union in consideration of economic and bio-geophysical aspects. Expansion of settlements, agricultural areas and bioenergy plantations at the expense of wetlands and its corresponding fragmentation constitute a great challenge to nature conservation. Therefore, the u...