The definitive guide to wetlands for students and professionals alike

Wetlands rank among the most productive but also the most vulnerable ecosystems. They break down toxins and help maintain aquatic ecosystems, provide both permanent and temporary homes for key species, and contribute enormously to biodiversity and global ecological health. In recent years the importance of wetlands has been increasingly well understood, and their management and restoration has become a particular focus of environmental research.

Wetlands provides a thorough and comprehensive overview of wetlands, updated to reflect the latest research findings and methodological approaches, as it has done for more than a generation. The new edition has been optimized for classroom use, breaking down the topic into four parts: introduction to wetlands, the wetland environment, wetland ecosystems, and wetland management.

Readers of the sixth edition ofWetlands will also find:A detailed discussion of the role of wetlands in improving water quality, protection from storm damage, and other ecosystem servicesThe latest approaches and examples of wetland creation and restorationA thorough discussion of the impacts of climate change on wetlands, and how to mitigate them

Wetlands is essential reading for students and professionals in ecology, environmental engineering, and water resource management.

William J. Mitsch, PhD, is Professor Emeritus in both the School of Environment and Natural Resources at The Ohio State University and in The Water School at Florida Gulf Coast University. Prior to OSU and FGCU, he held professorships at Illinois Institute of Technology and University of Louisville. His research and teaching focused on wetland ecology and biogeochemistry, wetland creation and restoration, ecological engineering and ecosystem restoration. He founded and was editor-in-chief for 25 years of the international journalEcological Engineering and was a Stockholm Water Prize Laureate in 2004. Dr. Mitsch completed 85 graduate students through thesis or dissertation in his 47 years as a professor.

James G. Gosselink, PhD (deceased), was Professor at the Center for Coast and Environment at Louisiana State University. In 1998 he received the Society of Wetland Scientists Lifetime Achievement Award.

Christopher J. Anderson, PhD, is a professor of wetland ecology at the Auburn University College of Forestry, Wildlife and Environment. He specializes on coastal wetlands with an emphasis on functional changes related to land use, climate and hydrologic change.

M. Siobhan Fennessy, PhD, is the Philip and Sheila Jordan Professor of Environmental Studies and Biology at Kenyon College. She is a wetland ecosystem ecologist studying the response of wetland plant communities and biogeochemical cycles to human disturbance, how that disturbance can be quantified and then reversed by ecological restoration, and the role of wetlands in climate mitigation.

Preface vii

About the Companion Website ix

Part I Introduction

1 Wetland History and Science 3

2 Wetland Definitions 22

3 The Worlds Wetlands 40

Part II The Wetland Environment

4 Wetland Hydrology 105

5 Wetland Soils 157

6 Wetland Biogeochemistry 176

7 Wetland Vegetation and Succession 210

Part III Wetland Ecosystems

8 Coastal Wetlands 251

9 Freshwater Marshes and Swamps 331

10 Peatlands 393

Part IV Wetland Management

11 Wetland Classification and Mapping 435

12 Wetland Laws and Protection 456

13 Wetland Ecosystem Services 478

14 Wetland Creation and Restoration 518

15 Wetlands and Water Quality 566

16 Wetlands and Climate Change 612

Glossary 643

Index 657