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OOS-6:
Development of landscape heterogeneity at multiple scales in wetlands
Monday,
August 8, 8 AM - 11:30 AM, Meeting Rooms 516a and 516b, Level 5, Palais
des congrès de Montréal
Organizers:
Barry Warner, (bwarner@sciborg.uwaterloo.ca)
Arnold van der Valk
Description:
Wetlands are characterized by considerable landscape heterogeneity at
multiple scales. This landscape heterogeneity is the result of local processes
that result in the redistribution of resources, especially nutrients. These
processes are often initiated by a small number of key organisms ranging from
termites to trees, often in interaction with local topography, surface water
flow, and groundwater flow. Plants and animals in these wetlands by slightly
altering local gradients in water or nutrients initiate the development of
environmental heterogeneity at local and regional scales. The resulting
landscape features, typically islands, strands, or mounds, quickly become
colonized by a host of secondary colonizers that would not otherwise occur in
these wetlands by creating new microhabitats and by amplifying the
redistribution of resources. The preservation of these local resource
redistribution processes is the key to ensuring the persistence of these
landscape features and the diverse assemblages of plant and animal species
associated with them. The papers in this session will review what is known about
how local processes in major wetlands around the world produce their
characteristic landscape features/patterns.
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