Wetland Ecology Quiz 2

No specific us national wetland law

Wetland protection and management are accomplished through the application and interpretation of many laws intended for other purposes and involve interagency cooperation
Managed under regulations related to both land use and water quality

Rivers and Harbors Act of 1899

The oldest federal environmental law in the U.S., which prohibits discharging refuse into or disrupting the flow of any port, harbor, or channel without a license or permit
Section 10
Focuses on navigable water for transportation uses

Clean Water Act of 1972

Law intended to clean up the nation's rivers and lakes.
Prohibits impacts if a practicable alternative exists: avoidance+ minimization+ mitigation
Corps of engineers
Sections 404 and 401 permits

Sections 404 and 401

Has to do with permits in order to be allowed to change water bodies
404- regulates dredging and filling in "waters of the us" at a federal level
401- allows states to review permits and issue or deny a water quality certification, check for federal agency

Coastal Zone Management Act (1972)

Created 2 national programs: national coastal zone management program+ national estuarine research reserve system
Administered by NOAA
Protecting+restoring+establishing a responsibility in preserving and developing the nation's coastal communities and resources

Executive order 11990

- Jimmy Carter
- Required all Federal agencies to consider
wetland protection within their policies.
- Some agencies (USEPA, SCS already had policies
in place, while others, such as BLM, did not).
Way to work together with all the agencies over wetlands

Swampbuster

Restricts the conversion of wetlands to cropland
Section 404 of the clean water act
Agriculture and silviculture practices were exempted from section 404 of the CWA creating conflict w/in the federal government
Provision to the Food Security Act (1985) denying federal subsidies to any farm owner who knowingly converted wetlands after the act became effective

Wetland Delineation Manual

First issued by Corps in 1987

Revised in 1989
"interagency manual" was controversial
opponents argued that too many areas were being classified as wetlands
under this system'

Council on Competitiveness reviewed and revisions were proposed 1991
these changes were not popular with the public and the Corps pulled the revision, opting to return to the 1987 manual
Beginning in 2006, Regional Supplements began to be released

No net loss policy

If wetland destroyed or impaired through development, equal amount must be restored or protected
National policy forum recommendation, george bush adopted it as national policy in 1989
Long-term goal of net gain

Wetland permitting

Slides 17-18 of laws lecture
Difficulty of obtaining permits acts as a filter reducing loss of wetlands

North american wetlands conservation act (1989)

Provides funding for implementation of the North American Waterfowl Management Plan
Successful incentive programs, us fish and wildlife service
Designed to encourage public-private partnerships to conserve NA wetland ecosystems
Provides grants to state agencies and private and public organizations to manage/restore/ enhance wetland ecosystems to benefit wildlife

SWANCC Decision

Supreme court case limiting scope of Army corp 404 authority applied to "isolated wetlands" for exceeding its authority
States scrambled/are scrambling to cover the loophole this left as left 30-60% of us wetlands susceptible to development, most states including ohio have stepped forward to protect them

significant nexus

Discernable surface water connection that can be traced to a Traditionally Navigable Water (TNW)
Can be overland, through non-Relatively Permanent Water(s) or RPWs
Establishes Corps jurisdiction (wetlands WITH a Significant nexus to a TNW are considered jurisdictional

Jurisdictional wetlands

wetlands that live under section 404 of the CWA (hydrology & hydrophytes) or the swamp buster provision the FSA (hydric soils). Boundaries are important for wetland delineation. Hydrology, hydric soils, and hydrophytic vegetation are key components. Individual states may have more specific jurisdictions and wetland requirements.

Ramsar Convention (1971)

global concern for wetland loss and degradation -> promotes local, regional and national actions and international cooperation, broad definition to include as many wetlands as possible especially coastal

Natural capital

Natural resources and natural services that keep us and other species alive and support our economies.

Provisioning, regulating, cultural

what are 3 categories of ecosystem services?

Population value (provisioning)

Animal populations that are economically important in wetlands
-animals harvested for pelts (otter, mink, beaver, muskrat, nutria)
-waterfowl and other birds (most protected migratory birds rely on wetlands, support a lucrative hunting industry)
-fish and shellfish (aquaculture on the rise, almost all fish and shellfish harvested in US are wetland dependent)

Other provisioning services from wetlands

-threatened and endangered species
-peat harvesting (horticultural peat production, used for energy in europe)
-timber+ other vegetation+ fiber and energy (not fully exploited but done elsewhere)

Ecological valuation

determination of the ecological value of the potential cost of the loss or degradation of an ecosystem service

Ecosystem services

The process by which natural environments provide life-supporting resources

Provisioning services

products obtained from ecosystems

Regulating services

the service provided by natural systems that helps regulate environmental conditions

Cultural services

ecosystems provide cultural or aesthetic benefits to many people
Wetlands: aesthetics, subsistence use, cultural history (aquatic civilization- part of community identity)

Flood mitigation (regulating service)

Storm water storage
-change runoff peaks and slow rates of discharge
- specific examples on slide 13 of ecosystems lecture
-wetland ability to mitigate flood increase w/: increasing wetland area+ distance of wetland downstream+ size of flood+ closeness of an upstream wetland+ absence of upland reservoirs

Storm abatement and coastal protection (regulating service)

Wetlands absorb the brunt of ocean storms as they come ashore, salt marshes and mangals act as giant storm buffers (examples on slide 14 ecosystem services lec)

Water quality (regulating)

-removal of suspended solids
-removal of toxins
-mineral uptake by plants
-decomposition
-peat accumulation

Quantifying services

-Habitat evaluation method (improvement of habitat for select species w/ and w/o project)
-Hydrogeomorphic analysis (valuation w/o regard to significance to society, compare a wetland of interest to a reference, procedure on slide 16 of ecosystem services lec)
-economic valuation (use values- direct use, social values- valued by society rather than individuals, option values- mainly future use, existence values- value derived from knowing it exists whether used or not [ex biological diversity])

Difficulty of wetland economic valuation

Difficulty to convey goods and services to dollar values
Presence of conflicting interests
Ecologically uniqueness of each wetland

Willingness to pay

How much the average citizen is willing to pay to experience/protect wetland
-gross expenditure (every cost to get there and experience)
-travel cost (travel cost as value of wetland visited, easy to determine but excludes value of off-site services usually regulating)
-imputed willingness to pay (use of market prices of services and combine)
-direct willingness to pay (survey polling, need to mindful of who is being polled due to class differences, doesn't mean they will actually pay this amount)

Opportunity cost

Net worth of a resource in its best alternative use, ex leave wetland pristine could be valued by a grocery store on top which is much more easily calculated

Replacement cost

-applied where the cost is related to achieving or maintaining some agreed environmental standards/quality
-environmental standard here refers to the level of service that was provided by the particular environmental asset prior to its destruction
-the costs of restoring the status quo/to replace the ecosystem service provided by the wetland

Energy analysis

Attempts to estimate the energy produced by a wetland. Because there is a clear relationship between energy and money, energy flow can be transformed to dollar values

Problems and paradoxes of quantifying wetland values

-value in anthropocentric (whole process is subjective, some values have no market price)
-some wetland values have no commercial value to the private wetland owner
-wetlands are unique and their values depend on their unique setting as well
-relationships among wetland area+ surrounding human pop+ marginal value are complex
-commercial values are finite whereas wetlands provide values in perpetuity (over time)
-comparison of present and future benefits not easy, inflation
-faustian bargain: making a deal with the devil, $ values on wetlands has a slippery slope that takes away narrative but can better reach some politics+ relate better to some people

Emergy analysis

Attempt to estimate all services by a wetland into energy, transform energy to dollar values
Value takes time to build as system matures

Reminder to look at

Example scenarios in ecosystem services lec

Climate change

a change in global or regional climate patterns

Evidence of climate change

-global avg surface temp has risen
-temps have risen during the last 4 decades of the 20th century in the lowest 8 km of the atmosphere
-snow cover and ice extent have decreased
-global average sea level has risen and ocean heat content has increased since the 1950s
-arctic temps hv increased and sea ice has shrunk

Greenhouse gases

Gases such as carbon dioxide, methane, nitrous oxide, water vapor, and ozone in the atmosphere which are involved in the greenhouse effect.
Reabsorb and re-emit infrared radiation from earth's surface warming earth's surface and lower atmosphere (greenhouse effect)
More potent (methane CH4 and nitrous oxide N2O)

Protected shores

Protected natural areas along the shoreline, can involve stabilizing (living shoreline), coastal marshes are recognized for the many ecosystem services they provide that help to do this (protecting people +wildlife+ climate+ water quality+ biodiversity+ etc)
Slides 20-21 of climate change lec as well

Permafrost

permanently frozen layer of soil beneath the surface of the ground
Big deposit of stored carbon in the form of northern peatlands, when disturbed releases a lot of CO2
Climate change -> higher temps -> release more CO2 ->
Positive feedback loop

Wetlands and climate change role

- carbon sequestration
-methane emissions (lower when pulsing hydrology rather than steady, work being done to reduce this but not to a scale to make a difference)

Climate change affecting wetlands

-sea level rise
-increased storm frequency and severity
-hydrology and biogeochemistry changes (increased rainfall + drought)
-increased temps
-altered migration patterns

Coastal wetlands

Experience greatest temp increases and change in the future, greatest climate change effects due to being by great marine changes

Soil

Greatest carbon reservoir on earth

Pulsing

Better hydrology for controlling methane emissions, allows drying periods that allow O2 permeation

Climate change effects on inland wetlands

-melting of permafrost will result in loss of tundra wetlands
-hydroperiods may change and resulting in a loss/alteration of wetlands
-most susceptible areas are small depressions w/ small watershed areas (vernal pools)

Treatment wetlands for water quality

Municipal wastewater treatment, mine drainage, urban stormwater treatment, agricultural runoff, landfill leachate and industrial wastewater treatment
More specifics for each in water quality lec, CAFOs (concentrated animal feed operation) like rangeland runoff treatment

Residence time

Period of time that water molecules and pollution particles remain in a wetland, inverse of turnover rate
(In days) =volume*medium porosity/flow rate
Determines amount of time wetland filtration can happen and if the wetland can become overwhelmed

Subsurface flow wetland

Emergent macrophyte treatment system with horizontal subsurface flow; plants are established in a gravel substrate over an impermeable layer, and the influent water flows through the gravel in the root zone.
Uses soil to help filtrate pollutants, slower but more effective

Surface flow wetland

Emergent macrophyte (cattails, bulrushes, common reed, etc.) treatment system with surface flow; plants are established in a soil substrate over an impermeable layer (clay, bentonite, liner).
Filtration focused on the plants and hydrology

Wetland-reservoir-subirrigation systems

Cycle b/w cropland irrigated in the soil (subirrigated) and a wetland and a reservoir
Runoff is held in the reservoir and in used in part of irrigation, closed loop with reduced nutrient and water inputs as recycled
Many positive effects slide 24 of water quality lecture

Treatment wetland design primary elements/factors

Hydrology (hydroperiod/depth, hydraulic loading rate [inflow rate per unit time per unit area], residence time)
Basin morphology (runoff settling basin b4 hits wetland to reduce solids)
Chemical loadings (don't overwhelm, residence time, have limits [rule of thumb slide34 of water quality lec])
Soils/sediments (want diff soil types for diff purposes)
Vegetation (want diff plants for diff purposes, ex tolerant/diversity/other traits as needed)
All depend on the purpose for being built**

Post-construction management of treatment wetlands

Takes time for function to be fully in place as system matures
If wetland is overwhelmed by nutrients/contaminants/water work will be needed to restore
Invasive removal needed
Etc.

Construction and maintenance costs

Creation of treatment wetlands cheaper than chemical treatment in the short and long term, slide 35 of water quality lec