Improving the Success of Wetland Creation and Restoration with Know‐How, Time, and Self‐Design

TLDR

Wetland creation and restoration is an emerging science that seeks to define success, emphasizing the need to understand wetland function, allow sufficient time (often 15–20 years for freshwater marshes and longer for forested, coastal, or peatland systems), and harness nature’s self‑design capacity. The study aims to use ecosystem‑level research and predictive ecological modelling to determine when restored wetlands meet success criteria and to estimate the time required to reach steady state. Full‑scale experiments are now being conducted to enhance understanding of wetland function across larger spatial scales and extended time horizons than typical ecological studies.

Abstract

The creation and restoration of new wetlands for mitigation of lost wetland habitat is a newly developing science/technology that is still seeking to define and achieve success of these wetlands. Fundamental requirements for achieving success of wetland creation and restoration projects are: understanding wetland function; giving the system time; and allowing for the self‐designing capacity of nature. Mitigation projects involving freshwater marshes should require enough time, closer to 15‐20 yr than 5 yr, to judge the success or lack thereof. Restoration and creation of forested wetlands, coastal wetlands, or peatlands may require even more time. Ecosystem‐level research and ecosystem modelling development may provide guidance on when created and restored wetlands can be expected to comply with criteria that measure their success. Full‐scale experimentation is now beginning to increase our understanding of wetland function at the larger spatial scales and longer time scales than those of most ecological experiments. Predictive ecological modelling may enable ecologists to estimate how long it will take the mitigation wetland to achieve steady state.