Thesis (M.E.S.)--The Evergreen State College, 2006. / Title from title screen (viewed 3/11/2010). Includes bibliographical references (leaves 41-53).

The application of natural tundra wetlands for municipal wastewater treatment is an option to meet upcoming federal wastewater systems effluent regulations for Canada’s Far North. A treatment performance assessment with physical, hydraulic and biogeochemical contextual data was conducted on the wetland treatment area of Coral Harbour, Nunavut. A modified Tanks-In-Series model was used to model treatment kinetics. The study showed seasonal variability in treatment performance and hydraulic characteristics. A decrease in vegetation diversity and deposition of organic detritus was observed in high effluent loading areas. Effective reduction in effluent concentrations was observed. Dilution from watershed contributions accounted for much of the reductions observed. The importance of the determination of the hydraulic residence time, field delineation of the wetted area, and delineation of the watershed was demonstrated. First order rate coefficients determined suggested that the selection of the lowest percentiles from literature of southern treatment wetlands is conservative in this case.

Magister Artium - MA / Wetlands occupy about 6% of the world’s surface and are fragile ecosystems that support a diversity of plants and animals. Wetlands are increasingly recognised for their role in the provision of ecosystem services and contribution to global biodiversity. Despite this, more than half of the world’s wetlands have vanished or been degraded, primarily due to agriculture. Wetlands are constantly adjusting to disturbances occurring within them and within their surrounding landscape. It is important to recognise to what extent various disturbances affect wetlands when assessing disturbance and impact, and when considering wetland protection options. The benefit of the detailed characterisation of the sub-catchments of the Nuwejaars catchment is deepened understanding of how different combinations of land-uses and soils impact catchment hydrology, and ultimately, the wetlands within the catchment

The purpose of this study was to investigate why the work towards the Swedish national environmental objective “Thriving wetlands” is not expected to be complete by the year 2030. The study aimed to investigate which factors may simplify or complicate the work from the perspective of the county administrative boards and what resources are needed to reach the goal. The study is based on a survey using a semi-qualitative method. Results indicate that the way county administrative boards cooperate with national authority Naturvårdsverket and associated municipalities influences the workflow. Furthermore, parts of the Swedish environmental legislation are perceived as an obstruction to wetland conservation. Swedish national wetland funding is also viewed as problematic as the funding is split into multiple parts and does not take into consideration any long-term solutions. Additionally, the attitude of the public towards wetland protection is perceived as mostly indifferent and unknowing. However, since seven of the total 21 county boards did not answer the survey, the results may not be completely established by a scientific principle. Further studies are needed to obtain more detailed answers concerning the topics discussed in this study.

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The goal of this study was to assess effects of sediment removal on vegetation communities in Prairie Pothole wetlands in North Dakota to determine if this management technique is providing desired results to create conditions for ideal vegetation communities in wetlands that will benefit wildlife. This project consists of vegetation surveys from seasonal wetlands located in Benson, Eddy. Towner. and Wells counties in North Dakota. Three types of wetlands were surveyed: natural (reference), excavated (treatment), and converted cropland. Vegetation surveys were completed in the shallow marsh and wet meadow zones of seasonal wetlands. Sites were sampled using a modified Daubenmire method. Aerial photos were assessed to determine the occurrence of drawdown cycles in wetland sites. Plant communities were analyzed using non-metric multidimensional scaling and multi-response permutation procedure was used to make comparisons between sites. The wet meadow zones and shallow marsh zones of the three types of wetlands were all significantly different (p<0.016) from one another. In general, restored wetlands show vegetation trends that liken natural wetlands while those that have been allowed to recover without restoration tend to be cattail choked. When examining hybrid cattail specifically visual obstruction scores were approximately four times greater in converted cropland sites versus treatment or reference sites. Vegetation composition indicates hydrologic conditions (fresh to brackish conditions) of specific sites and regional distribution are likely influential factors in wetland plant establishment. / North Dakota State University / U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service / Ducks Unlimited

Wetlands provide many functions, which includes offering surface water, supplying groundwater, breeding and producing natural resources, offering natural landscape and touristic spot, providing area for ecology education or research and regulating regional ecosystem etc.. Their function in the environment can't be ignored, and thus they deserve to be protected. One research was focused on Niaosung Wetland Park(NWP). The Niaosung wetland park was developed from the sinking pool of the Cheng Chin Lake Branch, Taiwan Water Supply Company. The site was originally designed to precipitate sediments from wastewater exhausting from Cheng Chin Lake Water Treatment Plant. The sinking pool gradually became a small-scale artificial wetland by sufficient water and nutrients. NWP was launching in September, 2000, which have seen working more than four years. Although the construction methods of NWP were disputable and destroyed existing ecosystem, NWP was still tended slowly to nature after recovering naturally for four years. Actually, It is difficult to manage NWP for the reason of that it is located in Grant Kaohsiung municipal area. The other part of this research was focused on The Neiweipi Cultural Park in Kaohsiung¡]NCP¡^Museum of Fine Arts. NCP was established in 2000, and was divided into three areas: hill area, river area and wetland. It is combined with the Art Museum and ecological park, which can offer citizens many life styles, such as art, culture, recreation and ecology, etc.. In this study, we monitored the water quality and assessed the habitat of both wetland parks to get some strategies which would be used to manage and maintain these two wetland parks in order to let them become more sustenance, stability and variety. After monitoring for one year, the result shows that both of the artificial wetland parks, whose purposes were not used for wastewater treatment (purification of water quality), could reduce some non-point source pollution. If we want to maintain both of the wetland parks sustenance, we must use regularly artificial controls and monitoring data, involving plants, birds, insects and water quality etc., to stop their changing and improve the quality of habitat. Habitat recovery is one of these artificial controls, which could maintain the habitats under the best state to attract diverse creatures for their looking for food and perch.

The aim of this study was to describe the plant communities within the eastern portion of the Mkuze Wetland, including only those systems that have a substantial input of water from the Mbazwane Stream, and to determine environmental factors that control distribution. The Mbazwane Wetland has a catchment of reworked sandy marine sediments, and its gradient is very shallow, such that water moving downstream through this system is free of suspended sediment and is clear. In addition, it has low conductivity suggesting a low solute load. A total of nine communities were identified in the study, based on the TWINSPAN cluster analysis. These are: Ficus trichopodalScleria angusta Swamp Forest Community; Rubus rigidus Disturbed Swamp Forest; Phragmites australis/Ficus trichopoda Precursor Swamp Forest; Typha capenis/Pycreus mundii/Leersia hexandra Marsh Community; Phragmites australis/Cladium mariscus/Ficus verruculosa Swamp Community; Cyperus papyrus Swamp Community; Echinochloa pyramidalis Floodplain Community; Ischaemum fasciculatum/Centella asiatica Floodplain Community; Paspalum distichum Floodplain Community. These communities can be divided into three broad groups, swamp forest, emergent herbaceous swamp/marsh and grassland floodplain communities. One of the main environmental variables influencing distribution was duration and depth of flooding, which separated the permanently flooded swamp and emergent swamp/marsh communities from the seasonally/ periodically inundated floodplain communities. Environmental variables that account for further division of the communities within these two groups, appear to be disturbances from fire and substratum differences related to sediment deposition from the Mkuze River, which enters the lower Mbazwane Wetland from the west. The permanently flooded swamp forest communities, are largely restricted to the northern parts of the study area, while the emergent swamp/ marsh communities, are restricted to the southern part of the study area. The swamp forest community is fringed to the west by an extremely high and steep dune, while the swamp/marsh communities are fringed to the west by much lower and more gently sloping dunes. It is suggested here that wildfires in conjunction with topography influence the distribution of these two groups of communities. An analysis of diurnal variation in temperature in the winter months (June - August) for winds (greater than l.0m/s) reveals that winds blowing from the west to north-west are associated with extremely high temperatures that persist during the day and well into the night. These are berg wind conditions that have been strongly linked to the desiccation of vegetation and promoting its susceptibility to burning in wildfires, and it is during these conditions that fires are most likely to occur in the study area. Swamp forest is situated in areas that are protected from direct exposure to these winds by the high, steep dune immediately to the west. These are thus likely to be naturally protected from fire. In contrast the herbaceous swamp/marsh communities are not protected from wind or fire by a similar topographic feature. Mature swamp forests were restricted to these 'berg wind shadow' areas, where there is complete protection from fire. Precursor and disturbed swamp forests occur where they are less protected and thus are infrequently exposed to fire. The distribution of the permanently flooded swamp/marsh communities in the areas exposed to fire appears to be related to the input of nutrients. The Cyperus papyrus Swamp Community was rooted in clay rich peat in the area around the Mkuze Delta that receives an input of clay from the Mkuze River during very high floods. In contrast, the Phragmites australis/Cladium mariscuslLeersia hexandra Swamp Community was rooted in peat with low ash content, as there is little or no input of clay from the Mkuze River, even during high floods. The seasonally/periodically- flooded communities included the Echinochloa pyramidalis Floodplain Community, the Ischaemum fasciculatum/Centella asiatica Floodplain Community and the Paspalum distichum Floodplain Community. The Echinochloa pyramidalis Floodplain Community was restricted to seasonally flooded areas receiving an input of clastic sediment from the Mkuze River during high floods, while the other floodplain communities occurred in areas receiving water from the relatively sediment free Mbazwane Stream. The distribution of these two communities appears to be influenced by the duration of inundation, with the lschaemum fasciculatum/Centella asiatica Floodplain Community being at higher elevation and therefore less frequently flooded than the Paspalum distichum Floodplain Community. / Thesis (M.Sc.)-University of Natal, Durban, 2000.