Evaluating the Floral and Avian Communities of an Ohio Wetland at The Wilds: 7 Years After Restoration
DOI:
https://doi.org/10.18061/ojs.v120i2.6630Keywords:
Wetland restoration, invasive species, restoration evaluation, wetlands, wildlifeAbstract
Wetland restorations have become an important tool in ecosystem management and have contributed to stabilizing hydrology and nutrient cycles, increasing native plant cover, and improving water quality. Long-term monitoring is essential for evaluating the success of a wetland restoration. However, wetland restorations are often monitored for short time periods compared to the timescale on which some abiotic factors change. Vegetative and avian assessments were conducted for a partially restored wetland on a reclaimed mine site, located at The Wilds® in Cumberland, Ohio. These assessments were performed from June through August 2018, 7 years after the initial restoration, using the unrestored portion as a comparison to evaluate restoration effectiveness. The restored wetland is characterized by open water with emergent vegetation, whereas the unrestored portion is largely a dense cattail (Typhus spp.) stand with low levels of standing water. The vegetative surveys used the Ohio EPA's Vegetation Index of Biotic Integrity for Emergent Vegetation (VIBI-E) and the bird surveys used a modified point count method. VIBI-E data are available for the study wetland from 1 year before restoration until summer 2018, while the avian study represents the first bird point count survey in the 2 wetland categories. The year 7 VIBI-E score of the restored section was the highest it has been since the restoration occurred and indicated "good" quality based on Ohio EPA scoring. The year 7 VIBI-E of the unrestored section has not changed since monitoring started and indicated "restorable" quality. The bird surveys showed higher richness associated with the restored wetland areas. These results demonstrate both the ecological value of wetland restoration and the ability for wetland restoration to maintain the ecological benefits over several years.
Downloads
Published
Issue
Section
License
Copyright (c) 2020 Riley Jones, Rebecca Swab, Stephen Spear
This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International License.
This Author Agreement for The Ohio Journal of Science ("Agreement") is entered into by and between The Ohio State University, on behalf of its University Libraries ("Publisher") and the author ("Author").
For good and valuable consideration, Publisher and Author agree as follows:
1. Author hereby grants to Publisher the right to publish, reproduce, distribute, translate, transmit and display his/her submitted work and an abstract thereof ("Work") in The Ohio Journal of Science in whole or in part and in all formats and all media. Author also hereby grants to Publisher the right for Publisher to enter into agreements with third parties that grant such third parties any or all of the rights that Author has granted to Publisher herein. The aforementioned rights may include the rights necessary to index and abstract the Work. The Author agrees that any subsequent publication of the Work will credit The Ohio Journal of Science as the site of first publication and provide a link to The Ohio Journal of Science website. This Agreement is subject to the terms and expectations outlined on Publisher's website (http://go.osu.edu/publishing-services).
2. Author represents and warrants that: (1) they are the creator and rights holder of the Work; (2) Publisher's exercise of the rights granted to Publisher herein will not infringe or violate any copyright or any other right of a third party; (3) if the Work contains any third party content, they have obtained the unrestricted permission of the copyright owner or that use of third party material is allowed because the material is in the public domain or an appropriate fair use analysis has been performed and there is a reasonable belief that use is permitted and (4) the Work contains nothing libelous or otherwise unlawful. Author hereby agrees to indemnify and hold harmless Publisher and its trustees, officers, employees, agents, and subgrantees from all claims related to Publisher's exercise of the rights granted to Publisher herein or related to the subject matter covered in Author's representations and warranties.
The Ohio Journal of Science is published under a Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International license, to allow for certain types of reuse without permission. By submitting this agreement, the Author agrees to apply a CC BY 4.0 license to the Work upon publication.
