Thrust Areas Ecosystem Water Institute Classification Level
Water, Land Use and Ecosystems Water and Climate Water and Society Water Resources Sustainability Springs Wetlands Watersheds Aquifers Lakes Coastal Zone  Water Institute Classification 1  Water Institute Classification 2  Water Institute Classification 3  Water Institute Classification 4
     

Assessing the Impact of Land Developments from Forested to Urban Land Uses on the Hydrology of Isolated Wetlands, focusing on the hydrologic dynamics and loss of water storage capacity at the landscape scale.
Goals and Objectives
 
Growing appreciation for ecosystem services provided by wetlands has prompted larger scale conservation, regulation and mitigation efforts, but questions continue to be debated about federal jurisdiction and sufficient wetland functions provided by mitigation efforts. This project evaluated the hydrology of 11 isolated Florida cypress domes in an effort to better understand the effects of agricultural and urban land use. In particular, we are testing two hypotheses: 1) That urban wetlands have shorter hydroperiods and 2) that agricultural and urban wetlands transpire more rapidly due to the infusion of nutrients that increases leaf area. We are refining a highly applicable nut under-utilized analytical tool to assess evapotranspiration in wetlands (the White method based on diurnal fluctuations in water level). Results show exquisite precision in ET measurements, much higher rates in urban and agricultural wetlands, but very little difference in hydroperiod or flashiness between reference and impacted systems.
 
Planned Outputs
Final Report
Journal Articles
 
Available Outputs
Title: A significant nexus: Geographically isolated wetlands influence landscape hydrology, Water Resources Research 50 (9), 7153-7166, 2014.
Authors: McLaughlin, D. L., D. A. Kaplan, M. J. Coehn
Title: Ecosystem specific yield for estimating evapotranspiration and groundwater exchange from diel surface water variation, Hydrological Processes 28 (3), 1495-1506, 2014.
Authors: McLaughlin D.L., M.J. Cohen
Title: Estimating effective specific yield in inundated conditions: a comment on a recent application, Ecohydrology 7 (4), 1245-1247, 2014.
Authors: McLaughlin, D.L., M. L. C. Mazur, D. A. Kaplan, M. J. Cohen
Title: Final Report: Effects of Urban Development on the Hydrology and Water Storage Capacity of Isolated Depressional Wetlands. USEPA. 2009.
Authors: Cohen, M.J. and D.L. McLaughlin
Title: P-sorption capacity estimation in southeastern USA wetland soils using visible/near infrared (vnir) reflectance spectroscopy
Authors: Cohen, M.J., Paris, J., and M.W. Clark
Title: Spatial variability of soil properties in cypress domes surrounded by different land uses
Authors: Cohen, M.J., Dunne, E.J., G.L. Bruland
Project Lead
Cohen, Matthew J
 
Project Participants
Cohen, Matthew J
 
Additional Participants
Mark Clark
Daniel McLaughlin
 
EcoSystem:
Wetlands
 
WIClassLevel: 
Level 1: WI Affiliated Faculty Project
 
ThrustArea: 
Water, Land Use and Ecosystems
 
Sponsor
US ENVIRONMENTAL PRO AGCY
 
Grant Award Dates
1/1/2009 to 12/1/2011