Water extraction from floodplain river systems may alter patterns of inundation of adjacent wetlands and lead to loss of aquatic biodiversity. Water reaching the Okavango Delta (Delta), Botswana, may decrease due to excessive water extraction and climate change. However, due to poor understanding of the link between inundation of wetlands and biological responses, it is difficult to assess the ...

Wetlands are globally important ecosystems that provide critical services for natural communities and human society. Montane wetland ecosystems are expected to be among the most sensitive to changing climate, as their persistence depends on factors directly influenced by climate (e.g. precipitation, snowpack, evaporation). Despite their importance and climate sensitivity, wetlands tend to be un...

Boreal wetlands play an important role in global carbon balance. However, their ecosystem function is threatened by direct anthropogenic disturbance and climate change. Oil sands surface mining in the boreal regions of Western Canada denudes tracts of land of organic materials, leaves large areas in need of reclamation, and generates considerable quantities of extraction process-affected materi...

Multipurpose constructed treatment wetlands are being used increasingly in the southwestern U.S. to reclaim water, provide habitat for wetlands wildlife, educate the public on issues related to water and wildlife conservation, and fulfill other goals. Whereas, man-made wetlands have proven effective for water treatment, one serious drawback is the potential of some wetlands to produce large num...

New observations and analyses are presented of the opposition effect on mud cracks (mud polygons) on desert playas. The enhanced brightness of the surface near the antisolar point has been previously and correctly ascribed to two sources: shadow-hiding and coherent backscatter. The observations reported here suggest that a third optical mechanism influences the OE: some parts of the mud polygon...

During the last two decades the multiple functions and values of wetlands have been recognized not only by the scientists and managers working with wetlands, but also by the public. The ability of wetlands to transform and store organic matter has been exploited in constructed wetlands. This paper summarizes the state-of-the-art of the uses of constructed wetlands in water pollution control by ...

Gaomei wetlands are national Taiwanese coastal wetlands. Over the past few years, they have grown into an important water bird habitat and popular bird-watching location. However, the rapid growth in tourism has begun to affect the environmental quality in the Gaomei wetlands. This study combined ecosystem services (ES) and ecological footprint (EF) assessments to evaluate the sustainability st...

Nutritional, behavioral, and diet data for lesser scaup (Aythya affinis [Eyton, 1838]) indicates that there has been a decrease in amphipod (Gammarus lacustris [G. O. Sars, 1863] and Hyalella azteca [Saussure, 1858]) density and wetland quality throughout the upper-Midwest, USA. Accordingly, we estimated densities of Gammarus and Hyalella in six eco-physiographic regions of Iowa, Minnesota, and...

Land use and land cover can have a significant impact on water chemistry, but the spatial scales at which landscape attributes exert a detectable influence on aquatic systems are not well known. This study quantifies the extent of the landscape influence using the proportion of wetlands in the watershed measured at different distances to predict dissolved organic carbon (DOC) concentrations in ...

Freshwater tidal wetlands are found in the upper estuaries of most Atlantic Coast river systems where there is sufficient freshwater flow to maintain salinities of less than one percent, but insufficient flow to dampen upstream tidal movement. Odum et al. (1979) conservatively estimate that there are 500,0001,000,000 ha of freshwater tidal wetlands along the Atlantic and Gulf Coasts, of which 1...