Assessing the ecological importance of coastal wetlands in a large lake context

A variety of ecosystem functions and values have been attributed to coastal wetlands of large lakes. Among these are trapping sediment, improving water quality, protecting shoreline erosion, transforming nutrients, and providing habitat for fish and wildlife (MAYNARD & WILCOX 1996). These primarily represent "in-wetland" functions and values with minor regard to the linkage coastal wetlands may have with the adjacent lake. Because coastal wedands typically comprise only a small percentage of the overall surface area in large lakes, an assumption has often been made that functional links berween wetlands and rhe lake proper are of lirtle significance. Recent investigations o f functionallinkages between coastal and offshore areas in large lakes (KEOUGH et al. 1996, KLUMP et al. 1995) suggest that coasral wetlands may be "centers of organization" (STEEDMAN & REGIER 1987) or "metabolic gates" (WETZEL 1990), and that wedand/littoral processes can influence whole ecosystem funcrion far more than rheir size alone indicates (GASITH 1991, WETZEL 1992). Considerable effort aimed at characterizing the role of coastal wetlands in a large lake ecosystems is needed to fully assess these possibilities.

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