Restoration and Creation of Freshwater and Estuarine Wetlands

M Siobhan Fennessy, Biology Department, Gambier, Ohio, USA
Ellen R Herbert, Biology Department, Gambier, Ohio, USA

Published online: May 2008

DOI: 10.1002/9780470015902.a0020470

The restoration and creation of freshwater and estuarine wetlands are important practices designed to increase wetland acreage and mitigate for the extensive losses of wetland area all over the world. Wetland restoration, defined as the reestablishment of wetlands where they once existed, and wetland creation, where entirely new wetlands are established in upland locations, require an understanding of hydrology, soils and landscape setting to foster the development of native biotic communities, including vegetation, invertebrates and amphibians. Restoration projects may take decades to fully develop; success may be measured by comparison of key indicators with natural wetlands.

Keywords: wetland restoration; wetland creation; aquatic plants; hydric soils; amphibians

Figure 1. Examples of (a) freshwater wetland creation project in central Ohio, USA (with monitoring well shown in centre of open water area) and (b) estuarine wetland restoration project in an urban area near San Francisco Bay, CA, USA. Photos by (a) E Herbert and (b) S Fennessy.
Figure 2. Zonation in estuarine wetlands showing gradients of salinity and elevation. Copyright 2004, Mitsch and Jorgensen (2004), reprinted with permission of Wiley.
Figure 3. Flooding acts as an environmental filter in this model of plant species composition in wetlands. Reproduced with permission of the Ecological Society of America from van der Valk (1981).
Figure 4. Comparison of total invertebrate taxa and total Chronomid taxa in a study of 9 natural and 10 restored wetlands. From Fennessy et al. (2004).
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 References
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 Further Reading
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    book Maltby E (1986) Waterlogged Wealth: Why Waste the World's Wet Places? London: Earthscan Publications.
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    book Turner RE and Streever B (2002) Approaches to Coastal Wetland Restoration: Northern Gulf of Mexico. Den Hague, The Netherlands: SPB Academic Publishing.
    book Van der Valk AG (2006) The Biology of Freshwater Wetlands. Oxford: Oxford University Press.
    book Wheeler BD, Shaw SC, Fojt WJ and Robertson R (1995) Restoration of Temperate Wetlands. New York: Wiley.
    book Whigham DF, Dykyjová D and Hejný S (1993) Wetlands of the World: Inventory, Ecology and Management. The Netherlands: Kluwer Academic Publishers.

Related Sub-Topics:

Restoration Ecology | Conservation and Management | Ecological Methods
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Article Title: Restoration and Creation of Freshwater and Estuarine Wetlands
 
How to Cite close
Fennessy, M Siobhan, and Herbert, Ellen R(May 2008) Restoration and Creation of Freshwater and Estuarine Wetlands. In: eLS. John Wiley & Sons Ltd, Chichester. http://www.els.net [doi: 10.1002/9780470015902.a0020470]