Evaluation of a wetland classification system devised for management in a region with a high cover of peatlands: an example from the Cook Inlet Basin, Alaska
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- 作者：Michael Gracz ; Paul H. Glaser
- 关键词：Wetland classification ; Boreal peatlands ; Hydrogeomorphic ; Southcentral Alaska ; Cook Inlet ; Wetland functions ; Multi ; response permutation procedure
- 刊名：Wetlands Ecology and Management
- 出版年：2017
- 出版时间：February 2017
- 年：2017
- 卷：25
- 期：1
- 页码：87-104
- 全文大小：3855KB
- 刊物类别：Biomedical and Life Sciences
- 刊物主题：Freshwater & Marine Ecology; Conservation Biology/Ecology; Environmental Law/Policy/Ecojustice; Marine & Freshwater Sciences; Hydrology/Water Resources; Water Quality/Water Pollution;
- 出版者：Springer Netherlands
- ISSN：1572-9834
- 卷排序：25
文摘
Several wetland classification schemes are now commonly used to describe wetlands in the contiguous United States to meet local, regional, and national regulatory requirements. However, these established systems have proven to be insufficient to meet the needs of land managers in Alaska. The wetlands of this northern region are predominantly peatlands, which are not adequately treated by the nationally-used systems, which have few, if any, peatland classes. A new system was therefore devised to classify wetlands in the rapidly urbanizing Cook Inlet Basin of southcentral Alaska, USA. The Cook Inlet Classification (CIC) is based on seven geomorphic and six hydrologic components that incorporate the environmental gradients responsible for the primary sources of variation in peatland ecosystems. The geomorphic and hydrologic components have the added advantage of being detectable on remote sensing imagery, which facilitates regional mapping across large tracts of inaccessible terrain. Three different quantitative measures were used to evaluate the robustness and performance of the CIC classes relative to that of other commonly used systems in the contiguous United States. The high within-group similarity of the classes identified by the CIC was clearly superior to that of the other systems, demonstrating the need for improved wetland classification systems specifically devised for regions with a high cover of peatlands.