21 articles
Blue carbon
Blue carbon is carbon captured and stored by ocean and coastal ecosystems, chiefly salt marshes, mangroves, and seagrass meadows, whose anaerobic soils sequester carbon up to ten times faster than tropical forests and support carbon markets.
Constructed wetland
Constructed wetland (artificial wetland, treatment wetland): an engineered wastewater treatment system using wetland plants, soils, and microbes. Shallow FWS or subsurface-flow beds remove BOD, nutrients, and metals at low energy and cost versus activated sludge.
Constructed wetlands for wastewater treatment
Constructed wetlands for wastewater treatment are engineered wetland systems that treat wastewater, with subsurface flow beds for secondary treatment and free-water surface wetlands for tertiary treatment.
Cowardin classification system
The Cowardin classification system is the 1979 US Fish and Wildlife Service scheme for classifying American wetlands and deepwater habitats, now the basis of the National Wetlands Inventory.
Floating treatment wetland
A floating treatment wetland is a buoyant, vegetated system in which plants on a floating frame remove nutrients and pollutants from ponds, lakes, and reservoirs.
Greenhouse gas emissions from wetlands
Greenhouse gas emissions from wetlands: methane, CO2, and N2O fluxes from waterlogged soils. Wetlands emit ~159 Tg CH4/yr, the largest natural methane source, controlled by water table, temperature, and substrates.
Hydrogeomorphic approach to wetland classification and assessment
The hydrogeomorphic (HGM) approach is a US method for classifying wetlands and scoring their ecological functions, developed by the Army Corps of Engineers in the early 1990s.
Kissimmee River
Kissimmee River, central Florida river flowing to Lake Okeechobee; channelized 1962-1971 into the C-38 canal, then restored 1999-2021 by backfilling 22 miles of canal and reconnecting 44 miles of historic channel.
Paludiculture
Paludiculture is productive farming or forestry on wet or rewetted peatlands that keeps water tables high to preserve peat. Also called wet agriculture; crops include reed, cattail, Sphagnum, sago; cuts GHG emissions versus drained peatland farming.
Peat swamp forest
Peat swamp forest: tropical forest on waterlogged peat, best developed in Southeast Asia (Borneo, Sumatra, Peninsular Malaysia). Stores ~105 GtC in tropical peat; drained and burned for oil palm and acacia plantations, emitting ~692 Tg CO2e yearly; restored by canal blocking.
Peatland
Peatland: waterlogged wetland ecosystem (bogs, fens, mires, swamps) with surface peat from partly decomposed plants; covers ~3% of land, stores ~20% of soil carbon (238–612 Gt C), and emits ~5% of GHGs when drained.
Peatland drainage impact
Peatland drainage impact covers the environmental consequences of draining peatlands: drained peat becomes a carbon source, causing emissions, subsidence of 1 to 8 meters, and water degradation.
Peatland restoration
Peatland restoration is the practice of returning drained or degraded peatlands to health, mainly by rewetting them so they again store carbon, support peat-forming vegetation, and cut greenhouse gas emissions.
Se7en Wetlands
Se7en Wetlands is a 1,640-acre constructed treatment wetland in Lakeland, Florida, providing tertiary wastewater treatment since 1987 on former phosphate mine land, opened as a public park in 2018 with trails, wildlife, and an education center project.
Society of Wetland Scientists
Society of Wetland Scientists (SWS), international professional society founded 1980 by Richard Macomber; 3,000+ members in 60+ countries; publishes Wetlands journal and Wetland Science & Practice; administers PWS certification.
Swale (landform)
Swale (landform): a shallow open depression lacking a defined channel; also called slack. Covers coastal dune swales between beach ridges, prairie swales, and designed vegetated stormwater channels, from Old Norse svalr.
Wetland classification
Wetland classification systems group wetlands by hydrology, geomorphology, vegetation, and soils. Key frameworks: the U.S. Cowardin system (five systems, 56 classes), the Ramsar 42-type typology, and Brinson's HGM functional classification.
Wetland delineation
Wetland delineation is the field procedure of drawing the boundary between wetland and non-wetland areas on a parcel of land, usually for Clean Water Act Section 404 permitting.
Wetland indicator status
Wetland indicator status is a rating of how likely a plant species occurs in wetlands, assigned on the U.S. Army Corps' National Wetland Plant List.
Wetland restoration
Wetland restoration returns a degraded or formerly drained wetland to its pre-disturbance condition by re-establishing natural hydrology, substrate, and vegetation; full recovery of plant communities and nutrient cycling can take decades.
William J. Mitsch
William J. Mitsch (1947–2025), American wetland ecologist and ecological engineer; founder of the Olentangy River Wetland Research Park, journal Ecological Engineering, and the Wetlands textbook; 2004 Stockholm Water Prize co-laureate.