Surface Water and Groundwater Interactions in Wetlands
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ISSN 1674-487X
Surface Water and Groundwater Interactions in Wetlands Xiancang Wu
1, 2
, Teng Ma *1, 2, Yanxin Wang1, 2
1. State Key Laboratory of Biogeology and Environmental Geology, China University of Geosciences, Wuhan 430074, China 2. School of Environmental Studies, China University of Geosciences, Wuhan 430074, China Xiancang Wu: https://orcid.org/0000-0002-7944-2340; Teng Ma: https://orcid.org/0000-0003-2827-9579 ABSTRACT: Wetland ecosystems are critical habitats for various types of wild lives and are important components of global ecosystem. However, with climate change and human activities, wetlands are facing with degradation. Surface water and groundwater (SW-GW) interactions play an essential role in matter and energy cycling in wetlands, and therefore affect the evolution and health of wetlands. But the role of groundwater in wetland ecosystems has been neglected or simplified. In this paper, we reviewed how surface water interacts with groundwater, and made a systematic summarization of the role of SW-GW interactions (such as maintaining water balance and biological diversity and removing pollution) in wetland ecological functions. We also reviewed the methods to investigate, simulate and quantify SW-GW interactions and related reactions. Finally, we illustrated how climate change and human activities affect SW-GW interactions and therefore affect wetland functions. We highlight the importance of groundwater in wetlands and the urgency to intensify the research in integrated multidisciplinary monitoring and simulation methods, dominant variables and thresholds and integrated water resources management of SW-GW interactions, and further aim to stimulate better protection and restoration of wetlands all over the world. KEY WORDS: wetland ecosystems, hyporheic zone, ecological functions, climate changes, human activities. 0
INTRODUCTION Wetlands are one of the most important ecosystems in the world, and their total area accounts for 6% of the total land area of Earth (Desta et al., 2012). The type of wetland includes coastal, river, stream, lake, swamp and constructed wetland. Wetlands are helpful in reducing floods, recharging groundwater or augmenting low flow of rivers and influencing regional microclimates, and therefore are very beneficial for reducing natural disasters, such as damage from heavy rain and drought (Acreman and Holden, 2013; Zedler and Kercher, 2005). They can also degrade toxins and pollutants, purify water and reduce environmental pollution (Phillips et al., 2015; Mitsch et al., 2012). Wetland ecosystems are the interactive zone between aquatic and terrestrial ecosystems and are home to many rare species of flora and fauna (Hu et al., 2017). However, in recent decades, wetlands have faced shrinkage of their area, reductions in biodiversity, increasing soil and water pollution and degradation of their functionality (Wu et al., 2017; Davidson, 2014; Smolders et al., 2009). As an essential part of wetland hydrology, groundwater is important in water and substance balance of wetla
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