Reflecting the importance of wetland hydrologic connectedness: a network perspective

Different types of wetlands are hydraulically interconnected and form specific network structures that display systematic characteristics. The sustainable use of wetlands and water resources requires management approaches that incorporate Wetlands are not isolated spaces but complex habitats, in which many biotic and abiotic connections all around. The sustainable use of wetlands and water resources requires management approaches that incorporate explicitly the spatial and temporal interconnections among different hydrological units around a wetland. However, lateral, vertical and longitudinal hydrological connections have been destroyed heavily due to the impacts of anthropogenic activities. Wetlands tend to be managed in fragmented worldview behind non-sustainable growth. To highlight the importance of maintenance the integrity of interconnected wetlands, we developed a framework to use ecological network analysis in holistic assessment on the Okefenokee wetland system (WS) in USA. Two methods, ascendency analysis and network environ analysis, in ecological network method were used to explore the systematic attributes and components' independencies of the wetland system. Results indicate the hydrological connections are extremely important for maintaining a wetland system. It is concluded that the proposed methods can provide effective ways to examine the hydrologic organization and components' interdependencies in a wetland system and contributes to the basin-wide wetlands protection and water resources management. (C) 2011 Published by Elsevier B.V. Selection and/or peer-review under responsibility of School of Environment, Beijing Normal University.