Document Type

Article

Publication Version

Version of Record

Publication Date

9-2013

Departmental Paper Identifier

NRM-101

Keywords

Climate change, cover cycle, hindcasting, North American wetlands, PPR, Prairie Pothole Region, prairie wetlands, simulation, wetlands

Abstract

The Prairie Pothole Region (PPR) of North America is a globally important resource that provides abundant and valuable ecosystem goods and services in the form of biodiversity, groundwater recharge, water purification, flood attenuation, and water and forage for agriculture. Numerous studies have found these wetlands, which number in the millions, to be highly sensitive to climate variability. Here, we compare wetland conditions between two 30-year periods (1946–1975; 1976–2005) using a hindcast simulation approach to determine if recent climate warming in the region has already resulted in changes in wetland condition. Simulations using the WETLANDSCAPE model show that 20th century climate change may have been sufficient to have a significant impact on wetland cover cycling. Modeled wetlands in the PPR’s western Canadian prairies show the most dramatic effects: a recent trend toward shorter hydroperiods and less dynamic vegetation cycles, which already may have reduced the productivity of hundreds of wetland-dependent species.

Publication Title

Ecology and Evolution

Volume

3

Issue

10

First Page

3471

Last Page

3482

Pages

12

Format

application/pdf

Language

en

DOI of Published Version

10.1002/ece3.731

Publisher

Wiley Open Access

Rights

Copyright © 2013 The Authors

Creative Commons License

Creative Commons Attribution 3.0 License
This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution 3.0 License.

Comments

This work was published in Ecology and Evolution 2013; 3(10)

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