Hydrology of Mid-Atlantic freshwater wetlands

Hydrology is a key variable in the structure and function of a wetland; it is a primary determinant of wetland type, and it drives many of the functions a wetland performs and in turn the services it provides. However, wetland hydrology has been understudied. Efforts by scientists from Riparia, a wetland and aquatic systems research center at Penn State University, have advanced the understanding of wetland hydrology in the Mid-Atlantic Region over the past two decades primarily through a series of studies at a set of long-term monitoring sites. This work contributed to four primary issues in wetland hydrology: validation of regional hydrogeomorphic classification schemes, establishment of reference criteria for monitoring and assessment, identification of targets for restoration or mitigation, and evaluation of the hydrologic behavior of created vs. non-created wetlands. This chapter (1) summarizes some of the key findings of hydrologic studies of wetlands from the published and non-published research of wetland scientists associated with Riparia and secondarily, (2) describes general, seasonal, and inter-annual hydrologic patterns of the water level data that has been collected at some of the long-term monitoring sites or reference sites.