Developmental framework for a desktop hydrogeomorphic wetland functional assessment derived from field-based data.

With loss of wetlands and their associated ecosystem services within landscapes, it is imperative to be able to understand the change in ecological functions underlying these services. Field-based functional assessments can produce a range of specific scores among a robust set of functions but are time and cost prohibitive as the number of wetlands assessed increases. Remote-based functional assessments are an alternative for broad scale assessments, but trade-off cost for limitations in scoring and functional assemblage.

Fine-scale spatial homogenization of microbial habitats: a multivariate index of headwater wetland complex condition.

With growing public awareness that wetlands are important to society, there are intensifying efforts to understand the ecological condition of those wetlands that remain, and to develop indicators of wetland condition. Indicators based on soils are not well developed and are absent in some current assessment protocols; these could be advantageous, particularly for soils, which are complex habitats for plants, invertebrates, and microbial communities. In this study, we examine whether multivariate soil indicators, correlated with microbial biomass and community composition, can be used to distinguish reference standard (i.

Inventorying and monitoring wetland condition and restoration potential on a watershed basis with examples from spring creek watershed, Pennsylvania, USA.

We developed an approach for inventorying wetland resources, assessing their condition, and determining restoration potential in a watershed context. This article outlines how this approach can be developed into a Wetland Monitoring Matrix (WMM) that can help resource management agencies make regulatory and nonregulatory decisions. The WMM can be embedded in a standard planning process (Wetlands, Wildlife, and Watershed Assessment Techniques for Evaluation and Restoration, or W3ATER) involving the setting of objectives, assessing the condition of the resource, prioritizing watersheds or sites, implementing projects, and evaluating progress.

Assessing wetland condition on a watershed basis in the Mid-Atlantic region using synoptic land-cover maps.

We developed a series of tools to address three integrated tasks needed to effectively manage wetlands on a watershed basis: inventory, assessment, and restoration. Depending on the objectives of an assessment, availability of resources, and degree of confidence required in the results, there are three levels of effort available to address these three tasks. This paper describes the development and use of synoptic land-cover maps (Level 1) to assess wetland condition for a watershed.