Into The Outdoors

Advanced Overview

It’s understandable that most people living their everyday lives in cities fail to recognize that wetlands represent one of our most important ecosystems. And the fact that they’re also one of our fastest shrinking ecosystems presents a genuine concern for all that wetlands do for the environment and all the species that depend on them for survival.

Scientists estimate that before European settlers arrived, states such as Wisconsin had 10 million acres of wetlands. But as people farmed the land and built roads and cities over time, they drained the wetlands. By the time they finally made laws to help protect the disappearing wetlands, and all the species that live there, we lost half of our wetlands. That’s five million acres alone in Wisconsin, which equates to a staggering 8,000 square miles dried up and gone – including all the wetland plants and animals that once lived there.

Society found out too late that preserving existing wetlands is much easier and much cheaper than creating new wetlands. Scientists also began to realize the valuable role that wetlands played to help prevent flooding. Wetlands act as buffers between surface runoff and rivers, and reduce flooding peaks by as much as 60 percent in some areas. In fact, just one acre of wetlands can store over one million gallons of floodwater. So by preventing flooding, they can help save lives and property.

Environmental scientists also discovered that wetlands fight pollution by supplying clean water to our lakes and rivers. Here’s how it works. When rain and melt waters flow through farms and cities, they can pick up pollution, both dissolved and particulate. If those waters flow through a wetland, the wetland naturally “filters out” most of the pollution. By the time it enters a lake or river, it’s clean. So wetlands are like natural waste treatment plants. That “trickle down” effect of wetlands filtering clean water helps humans and hundreds of species of wildlife.

Besides all the species of mammals that inhabit wetlands such as beavers, otters, mink, and muskrats, there are thousands of wetland dependent species of plants, fish, reptiles, insects, birds, and amphibians. For so many of these animals and plants, a wetland is the only place that provides them the ecosystem where they can survive. In fact, one third of all the endangered plants and animals in the state of Wisconsin depend on wetlands to survive. Most people are surprised to know that over 350 species of birds primarily use wetlands in their lifecycle.

And of course, the ethereal singing of frogs is a measure of health of a wetland. Insects make up a valuable part of this wetlands ecosystem. They consume plants, and other insects and consumers… consume them. One common consumer of insects are those singing amphibians with long tongues – frogs! One of the challenges in studying frogs is that if we try to sneak up on them and visually tell what kind they are… well, those little guys hop off or dive under water. They really need to be wary of predators to survive. So to help study them, we also need to rely on our sense of hearing to tell who’s out there.

Have you’ve even heard the wetland sound like running a fingernail across a plastic comb? It’s a frog that sings in groups. So it makes sense that they call it a “chorus frog”.

Or how about the one that makes that “peeping” song? It’s one of the first frogs we hear in spring. It’s named after its little peep-peeping sound. It’s called a spring peeper. They’re a little frog and hard to spot. Any guesses why all these frogs sing? It’s the same reason that birds sing – to attract mates and establish territory.

Moving up in the wetlands food pyramid, various predators prey on the frogs. Take the sandhill crane for instance, or his endangered cousin, the whooping crane. Like so many birds, they depend on the diverse food pyramid created within wetlands. By studying them, ecologists can learn about how they interact with the rest of the wetlands food pyramid that in turn relates to the overall ecological health of the wetlands.

At the bottom of the wetlands food pyramid are the abiotic or non-living parts like sunlight, water, air, soil, and nutrients. They provide the life giving basics to the living or “biotic” parts going up. It starts with lots of plants and small creatures that get bigger in size but fewer in number as you move up the pyramid. Wetlands predators sit at the top. By studying any one species and where it fits into the pyramid, we can see how it might relate to or impact something else above or below it in the pyramid.

Unfortunately, foreign species sometimes creep into the wetlands pyramid. These “Invasive species” can really mess with the delicate balance in any ecosystem – including our wetlands. For instance, Phragmites Australis, or the common reed, looks harmless enough. But it actually pushes out native species of wetlands plants and is taking over many wetland areas. This invasion alters the structure and function of diverse marsh ecosystems by changing species composition, nutrient cycles and hydrological cycles. This invader can eventually decrease native biodiversity and quality of wetland habitat, particularly for migrating wading birds and a variety of different waterfowl species.

Besides being interesting, the study of wetlands and their related ecosystems create exciting careers in wetlands science and management that you could do someday. Here are some to consider:

• Hydrologists study the wetlands water cycle.
• Botanists study native and invasive plants.
• Aquatic Biologists study the fish and creatures in the wetlands ecosystem.
• Resource Managers include wetlands in management plans.
• Ecologists study and manage all the interrelated parts of the environment and ecosystem.
• Water Quality Managers study and help control how wetlands impact our water quality.
• Wetland Program Coordinators help manage, restore, and protect our wetlands.