Dredging Impacts on Soil Properties of the Kankakee River System 150 Years after Perturbation
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WETLANDS RESTORATION
Dredging Impacts on Soil Properties of the Kankakee River System 150 Years after Perturbation Jack V. Ferrara 1 & Joshua J. Puhlick 2 & Tamatha A. Patterson 3 & Katherine C. Glover 4 Received: 17 April 2020 / Revised: 23 June 2020 / Accepted: 23 July 2020 # Society of Wetland Scientists 2020
Abstract Freshwater marshes provide ecosystem services such as improving water quality by storing water and filtering nutrients from upland runoff, minimizing erosion and flooding by reducing stream and river velocity and peak flows, and carbon sequestration by storing organic matter for long extended periods of time. These ecosystem services have increased interest in the protection and restoration of marshes and soil properties and are an important consideration for successful restoration. This study was conducted in Indiana, USA, within the historical extent of the Grand Kankakee Marsh that once encompassed 202,343 ha, until the dredging of the Kankakee River from 1852 to 1917 to convert the marsh to cropland. Current (in 2019) soil properties (organic matter mass and concentration, bulk density, moisture content, and carbonate concentration) were compared between (1) marshes that were dredged and presently in other land-use categories such as cropland and forests, and (2) remnant marshes that were not impacted by dredging. On average, organic matter mass and concentration were not significantly different between dredged areas and marshes (p > 0.05). However, marshes tended to have lower bulk densities, greater moisture contents, and greater carbonate concentrations compared to dredged areas. The soil properties of remnant marshes in this study can be used to evaluate the success of marsh restoration efforts in regions with similar soils, climate, and land-use history. Keywords wetland restoration . freshwater marsh ecosystems . land-use change . soil organic matter . soil carbon storage . Grand Kankakee Marsh
Introduction
* Jack V. Ferrara [email protected] Joshua J. Puhlick [email protected] Tamatha A. Patterson [email protected] Katherine C. Glover [email protected] 1
Ecology and Environmental Sciences, University of Maine, 101 Nutting Hall, 04469 Orono, ME, USA
2
School of Forest Resources, University of Maine, 5755 Nutting Hall, 04469 Orono, ME, USA
3
Great Lakes Science Center, US Geological Survey, Lake Michigan Ecological Research Station, Chesterton, IN 46304, USA
4
Climate Change Institute, University of Maine, Sawyer Environmental Research Building, 04469 Orono, ME, USA
Since the Industrial Revolution, anthropogenic activities have accelerated the amount of greenhouse gases emitted to the atmosphere, which has contributed to changes in climatic regimes. These anthropogenic activities include changes in land use, such as the dredging and draining of wetlands for agricultural use, that can result in carbon emissions (IPCC 2014). Soil carbon is the largest pool of terrestrial organic carbon with two to three times more carbon than in the atmosphere or in terrest
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