TY - JOUR
T1 - Wetlands as large-scale nature-based solutions
T2 - Status and challenges for research, engineering and management
AU - Thorslund, Josefin
AU - Jarsjo, Jerker
AU - Jaramillo, Fernando
AU - Jawitz, James W.
AU - Manzoni, Stefano
AU - Basu, Nandita B.
AU - Chalov, Sergey R.
AU - Cohen, Matthew J.
AU - Creed, Irena F.
AU - Goldenberg, Romain
AU - Hylin, Anna
AU - Kalantari, Zahra
AU - Koussis, Antonis D.
AU - Lyon, Steve W.
AU - Mazi, Katerina
AU - Mard, Johanna
AU - Persson, Klas
AU - Pietro, Jan
AU - Prieto, Carmen
AU - Quin, Andrew
AU - Van Meter, Kimberly
AU - Destouni, Georgia
N1 - Funding Information:
This research was supported by The Swedish Research Council Formas (Project No. 2012-790) and the Navarino Environmental Observatory (NEO) . The Russian partners were funded from the Russian Scientific Foundation (project No. 14-17-00155). Publication was assisted by U.S. National Science Foundation (grant number 1619948 ) supporting EcoSummit 2016 Sustainability: Engineering Change . The authors declare no conflict of interest.
Funding Information:
This research was supported by The Swedish Research Council Formas (Project No. 2012-790) and the Navarino Environmental Observatory (NEO). The Russian partners were funded from the Russian Scientific Foundation (project No. 14-17-00155). Publication was assisted by U.S. National Science Foundation (grant number 1619948) supporting EcoSummit 2016 Sustainability: Engineering Change. The authors declare no conflict of interest.
Publisher Copyright:
© 2017 The Author(s)
PY - 2017/11
Y1 - 2017/11
N2 - Wetlands are often considered as nature-based solutions that can provide a multitude of services of great social, economic and environmental value to humankind. Changes in land-use, water-use and climate can all impact wetland functions and services. These changes occur at scales extending well beyond the local scale of an individual wetland. However, in practical applications, engineering and management decisions usually focus on individual wetland projects and local site conditions. Here, we systematically investigate if and to what extent research has addressed the large-scale dynamics of landscape systems with multiple wetlands, hereafter referred to as wetlandscapes, which are likely to be relevant for understanding impacts of regional to global change. Although knowledge in many cases is still limited, evidence suggests that the aggregated effects of multiple wetlands in the landscape can differ considerably from the functions observed at individual wetland scales. This applies to provisioning of ecosystem services such as coastal protection, biodiversity support, groundwater level and soil moisture regulation, flood regulation and contaminant retention. We show that parallel and circular flow-paths, through which wetlands are interconnected in the landscape, may largely control such scale-function differences. We suggest ways forward for addressing the mismatch between the scales at which changes take place and the scale at which observations and implementation are currently made. These suggestions can help bridge gaps between researchers and engineers, which is critical for improving wetland function-effect predictability and management.
AB - Wetlands are often considered as nature-based solutions that can provide a multitude of services of great social, economic and environmental value to humankind. Changes in land-use, water-use and climate can all impact wetland functions and services. These changes occur at scales extending well beyond the local scale of an individual wetland. However, in practical applications, engineering and management decisions usually focus on individual wetland projects and local site conditions. Here, we systematically investigate if and to what extent research has addressed the large-scale dynamics of landscape systems with multiple wetlands, hereafter referred to as wetlandscapes, which are likely to be relevant for understanding impacts of regional to global change. Although knowledge in many cases is still limited, evidence suggests that the aggregated effects of multiple wetlands in the landscape can differ considerably from the functions observed at individual wetland scales. This applies to provisioning of ecosystem services such as coastal protection, biodiversity support, groundwater level and soil moisture regulation, flood regulation and contaminant retention. We show that parallel and circular flow-paths, through which wetlands are interconnected in the landscape, may largely control such scale-function differences. We suggest ways forward for addressing the mismatch between the scales at which changes take place and the scale at which observations and implementation are currently made. These suggestions can help bridge gaps between researchers and engineers, which is critical for improving wetland function-effect predictability and management.
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U2 - 10.1016/j.ecoleng.2017.07.012
DO - 10.1016/j.ecoleng.2017.07.012
M3 - Article
AN - SCOPUS:85024489718
SN - 0925-8574
VL - 108
SP - 489
EP - 497
JO - Ecological Engineering
JF - Ecological Engineering
ER -