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Isolated Wetlands. Hydro-geo Developmental Factors of Isolated Wetlands. Developmental Factors. SWANCC v. US Army Corps of Engineers Geological Factors Hydrological Factors Isolated wetlands?. SWANCC v. US Army Corps of Engineers.
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Isolated Wetlands Hydro-geo Developmental Factors of Isolated Wetlands
Developmental Factors • SWANCC v. US Army Corps of Engineers • Geological Factors • Hydrological Factors • Isolated wetlands?
SWANCC v. US Army Corps of Engineers • Ruling made regulation of many isolated wetlands out of jurisdiction of the USACE • New definition of isolated wetland’s relevance needed • So why do I have to listen to you talk about water and rocks?
Geological Development of Wetlands • Glacial wetlands • 10,000+ years ago N. Am covered in glaciers • Aeolian Wetlands • Scouring of wind over time • Other geological factors • Range from topographical depressions to make-up of the soil strata
Glacial Wetlands • Prairie Potholes • 10,000 yrs ago Wisconsin Glacier retreated • Stretch from North Dakota to Montana then south into Texas • Channeled Scablands • Collapse of glacial ice dams • Mainly in Cascade Mountain Region of Pacific NW • ~85% are considered isolated
Aeolian Wetlands • Nebraska Sandhills • 60% isolated (317,400 ha of a total 529,000 ha) • Playas • cover the Southern High Plains between Texas and New Mexico • Aeolian forces scouring out shallow, circular, flat bottomed basins • calcium in the soil is dissolved by water collection • Rainwater Basin • cover the Southern High Plains between Texas and New Mexico • 90% of them geographically isolated • silty loess plains
Other Geological Factors • Great Lake Alvar Wetlands • Shallow bedrock • Topographical Depressions • salt flats, costal plains and pocosins • Perched clay layers • Build up of fines
Hydrological Development of Wetlands • Karst Basin • Calcium and Dolomite in soil carried away by GW • Cypress Domes • Sinkhole wetlands
Karst Basin Wetlands • Cypress Domes • Swampy Woodlands (cypress, duh…) • Sustained by precipitation run off and long retention times • Sinkhole Wetlands • Intricate system of underground fissures and streams.
Isolated Wetlands? • Defining “isolated” • Looking at spatial and temporal relations