Wetland Hydrology and Plant Community Composition – A Reassessment of Site Conditions a Decade Later

A small creek in a Pennsylvania forest
Project Type
Date
April 2021
A Penn State researcher looks to reinstall instruments on wetland sites where he collected data more than a decade ago to assess hydrologic changes that may have occurred due to climate change.

Beginning in 1994, I instrumented more than 60 wetlands of various types to begin a long-term assessment of wetland hydrology, primarily aimed at classification efforts. Ultimately, forty-two wetlands, covering five hydrogeomorphic (HGM) subclasses, were sampled for over a decade in central Pennsylvania. Using median depth to water as the metric, four groups were identified: created, riparian depression/slope, and two combinations of headwater/mainstem floodplain. The project ended slowly as instruments failed and funds faded away. After 10 years, and with increasing understanding of the effects of climate change on freshwater communities, I propose to re-instrument a subset of those same wetland sites, and assess plant community composition, to try and assess if any hydrologic changes have occurred that might reflect changing climatic regimes.

Researchers

In the News