Climate change and the Prairie Pothole Region wetlands

1
Climate change and the Prairie Pothole Region
wetlands

• Elizabeth Pisarczyk
• EEES 5730
• December 5, 2007

2
Prairie pothole region (PPR)

• Formed by glacial retreat
• High density of wetlands
• Over 700,000 km²

http//www.npwrc.usgs.gov/resource/wetlands/pothol
e/prairie.htm
3
PPR continued

• Extreme climate variation
• Temperature (north/south)
• Precipitation (west/east)
• Water level
• Vegetation

4
Hydrology

• Majority of input from precipitation
• Groundwater connections
• Few, if any (Cook and Hauer 2007)
• Depends on soil permeability
• Surface water connections
• Intermittent during seasonal flooding (Leibowitz
  and Vining 2003)

5
Wet-dry cycles

• Drives biodiversity and productivity
• Water availability determines plant community
  (van der Valk 2005)
• Dry marsh
• Annuals and emergent species
• Open water marsh
• Emergent plants around edges

6
Flooding duration

• Permanent
• Semi-permanent
• Seasonal
• Temporary

7
Importance of wetlands

• Store water
• Catch sediments
• Filter pollutants
• Breeding habitat for waterfowl

8
Waterfowl habitat

• PPR produces 50-80 of North American ducks
  (Johnson et al 2005)
• Require a range of habitat
• Preference for patch of wetlands with varied
  flooding (Galatowitsch and van der Valk 1994)

9
Waterfowl continued

• Historically, eastern wetlands provide refuge for
  populations during drought (Johnson et al 2005)
• However, eastern wetlands strongly affected by
  human activities

10
Management Problems

• Many wetlands drained
• Agriculture
• Urban development
• Grazing
• Runoff
• Invasive species

11
PPR Research

• Studies often geographically limited
• Landscape studies
• Quantify relationship between PPR structure,
  function and climate
• Wetland function during wet/dry cycles
• Importance of temporal wetlands

12
Climate change

• Temperature increase
• Evaporation
• Longer droughts
• Changes in precipitation pattern
• Wet/dry cycles?
• Waterfowl?

13
Climate change cont

• Increased evaporation may lengthen completion of
  wet-dry
• Decreased productivity
• Waterfowl population numbers may drop below
  historic levels (Johnson et al 2005)

14
Possible outcomes
Johnson et al (2005) model changes in waterfowl
habitat
15
Research question

• Would artificial hydrologic connections between
  PPR wetlands mitigate predicted decreases in
  water-level fluctuations due to climate change?

16
Challenges

• Site selection
• Scale
• Cost effective management

17
References

• Cook, B.J. and Hauer, R.F. 2007. Effects of
  hydrologic connectivity on water chemistry, soils
  and vegetation structure and function in an
  intermontane depressional wetland landscape.
  Wetlands 27(3)719-739.
• Galatowitsch, S.M. and van der Valk, A.G.
  Restoring Prairie Wetlands. Ames, Iowa Iowa
  State University Press, 1994.
• Johnson, W.C., Boettcher, S.E., Pioani, K.A.,
  Gutenspergen, G. 2004. Influence of weather
  extremes on the water levels of glaciated prairie
  wetlands. Wetlands 24(2)385-398.
• Johnson, W.C., Millett, B.V., Gilmanov, T.,
  Voldseth, R.A., Guntenspergen, G.R., Naugle, D.E.
  2005. Vulnerability of northern prairie wetlands
  to climate change. Bioscience 55(10)863-872.
• Liebowitz, S.G. and Vining, K.C. 2003. Temporal
  connectivitiy in a prairie pothole complex.
  Wetlands 23(1)13-25.
• USGS. 2006. Wetlands of the Prairie Pothole
  Region Invertebrate species composition, ecology
  and management. http//www.npwrc.usgs.gov/resource
  /wetlands/pothole/prairie.htm.
• Van der Valk, A.G. 2005. Water-level fluctuations
  in North American prairie wetlands. Hydrobiologia
  539171-188.