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Ephemeral definition nhd1/29/2024 ![]() Evenson et al found that restoring 2% of the area of the Upper Mississippi River Basin to wetlands can reduce the outlet N loads by 12%. Hansen et al used a coupled model to explore N retention dynamics in the Le Sueur River Basin in the Minnesota River basin, and found restoration of floodplain wetlands to be the most cost-effective strategy for N retention. At the landscape-scale, N retention potential of wetlandscapes can be quantified as a function of N retention in individual wetlands, as well as the distribution and connectivity of wetlands across the landscape. Retention rates have been found to correlate strongly with inputs from the landscape, wetland size, and water residence times. ![]() The effectiveness of N retention in a wetland varies widely, with retention magnitudes ranging from 0.002 to 9048 g N m −2 yr −1 and retention efficiencies ranging between 30% and 40% of N inputs. Prioritization of wetland restoration requires an understanding of how different types of wetlands across the landscape perform different services. Indeed, wetlands in the United States have been estimated to remove more reactive N than all other aquatic ecosystems combined, in addition to providing other ecosystem services such as carbon sequestration and biodiversity enhancement. In particular, the anoxic conditions and high organic carbon content in wetlands promotes the removal of nitrogen (N) through denitrification. Wetlands retain excess nutrients from agricultural and urban runoff and protect downstream waters. Wetland protection and restoration has been recognized as one of the most promising strategies for mitigating nutrient pollution. Our results highlight how GIWs have an outsized role in retaining nutrients, and this service is enhanced due to their hydrologic disconnectivity which must be protected to maintain the integrity of downstream waters. This effect is more pronounced in semi-arid systems such as the prairies in North Dakota, where transient assumptions lead to 1.8 times more retention, compared to humid landscapes like the North Carolina Pocosins where transient assumptions only lead to 1.4 times more retention. We use a reduced complexity model with 30 years of remotely sensed monthly wetland inundation levels in 3700 GIWs across eight wetlandscapes in the US to show how consideration of transient hydrologic dynamics can increase N retention estimates by up to 130%, with greater retention magnification for the smaller wetlands. Here, we hypothesize that the isolation of the GIWs make them more efficient N filters, especially when considering transient hydrologic dynamics. ![]() Many small ephemeral wetlands, also known as geographically isolated wetlands (GIWs), are hotspots of N retention but have received fewer legal protections due to their apparent isolation from jurisdictional waters. Wetlands protect downstream waters by filtering excess nitrogen (N) generated from agricultural and urban activities. ![]()
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