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Posted Wed Jan 25 2012: from
PhysOrg:
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Restored wetlands rarely equal condition of original wetlands http://apocadocs.com/s.pl?1327456807
Wetland restoration is a billion-dollar-a-year industry in the United States that aims to create ecosystems similar to those that disappeared over the past century. But a new analysis of restoration projects shows that restored wetlands seldom reach the quality of a natural wetland.
"Once you degrade a wetland, it doesn't recover its normal assemblage of plants or its rich stores of organic soil carbon, which both affect natural cycles of water and nutrients, for many years," said David Moreno-Mateos, a University of California, Berkeley, postdoctoral fellow. "Even after 100 years, the restored wetland is still different from what was there before, and it may never recover."...
Wetlands provide many societal benefits, Moreno-Mateos noted, such as biodiversity conservation, fish production, water purification, erosion control and carbon storage.
He found, however, that restored wetlands contained about 23 percent less carbon than untouched wetlands, while the variety of native plants was 26 percent lower, on average, after 50 to 100 years of restoration. While restored wetlands may look superficially similar - and the animal and insect populations may be similar, too - the plants take much longer to return to normal and establish the carbon resources in the soil that make for a healthy ecosystem.
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[Read more stories about:
wetlands, habitat loss]
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'Doc Jim says:
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All I have to do is wait 50 to 100 years? That's well worth it, for new suburban development!
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