Evaluating the ecological performance of wetland restoration in the Yellow River Delta, China.

Abstract Long-term monitoring is essential to evaluate the effects of wetland restoration projects. A monitoring program before and after restoration has been carried out in the study area located in the Yellow River Delta since 2001. Water quality, soil salinity, soil organic matter, plant community, and bird species were chosen as indicators in this program. During the past seven years, the restored wetland showed increasing efficiency in reducing water pollution levels. Soil quality was constantly improved through salinity reduction and soil organic matter accumulation. The vegetation community quickly re-established after the restoration was initiated in 2002. The restored vegetation communities provide favorable habitat conditions for birds and thirty-seven bird species were observed in October 2007. Based on Canonical Correspondence Analysis (CCA), plant species and vegetation community are mainly influenced by soil salinity and water depth. These indicate that conducting freshwater to the project area is an efficient measure for vegetation restoration. While monitoring results show that the restoration project had positive effects on the wetland ecosystem over the past seven years, two issues remain for future study: (1) the contribution of harvesting vegetation to stabilizing nutrient removal rate and the accumulation of soil organic matter in the soil; and (2) the effects of excessive propagation of Phragmites australis on spatial heterogeneity and plant diversity.

[1]  C. Brönmark,et al.  Conflicting demands on wetland ecosystem services: nutrient retention, biodiversity or both? , 2005 .

[2]  S. Riffell,et al.  Birds in depressional forested wetlands: Area and habitat requirements and model uncertainty , 2006, Wetlands.

[3]  N. Burton,et al.  Impacts of Man-Made Landscape Features on Numbers of Estuarine Waterbirds at Low Tide , 2002, Environmental management.

[4]  Changhao Jin.  Biodiversity dynamics of freshwater wetland ecosystems affected by secondary salinisation and seasonal hydrology variation: a model-based study , 2008, Hydrobiologia.

[5]  Susan L. Richardson,et al.  Response of epiphytic foraminiferal communities to natural eutrophication in seagrass habitats off Man O'War Cay, Belize , 2006 .

[6]  E. Seabloom,et al.  The development of vegetative zonation patterns in restored prairie pothole wetlands , 2003 .

[7]  Stuart R. Phinn,et al.  Remotely Sensed Estimates of Vegetation Structural Characteristics in Restored Wetlands, Southern California , 1999 .

[8]  R. Westerman.  Soil testing and plant analysis , 1990 .

[9]  J. Gibbs,et al.  Assessing the sensitivity of wetland bird communities to hydrologic change in the eastern Great Lakes region , 2006, Wetlands.

[10]  M. Shah,et al.  The environmental status of a Kashmir Himalayan wetland game reserve: Aquatic plant communities and eco‐restoration measures , 2004 .

[11]  David M. Burdick,et al.  A Regional Assessment of Salt Marsh Restoration and Monitoring in the Gulf of Maine , 2006 .

[12]  M. Marani,et al.  The Ecogeomorphology of Tidal Marshes , 2004 .

[13]  W. Niering,et al.  Salt Marsh Restoration in Connecticut: 20 Years of Science and Management , 2002 .

[14]  S. Seagle,et al.  The Use of Case Studies in Establishing Feasibility for Wetland Restoration , 2006 .

[15]  J. S. Robinson,et al.  Hydrological controls on soil redox dynamics in a peat-based, restored wetland , 2007 .

[16]  D. Bossio,et al.  Alteration of soil microbial communities and water quality in restored wetlands , 2006 .

[17]  J. Zedler,et al.  Wetland resources : Status, trends, ecosystem services, and restorability , 2005 .

[18]  Sonia Silvestri,et al.  Tidal regime, salinity and salt marsh plant zonation , 2005 .

[19]  T. Mitchell Aide,et al.  Restoration Success: How Is It Being Measured? , 2005 .

[20]  W. Mitsch.  Wetland creation, restoration, and conservation: A Wetland Invitational at the Olentangy River Wetland Research Park , 2005 .

[21]  Zhifen Wu,et al.  Studies on interrelation between salt vegetation and soil salinity in the Yellow River Delta , 1994 .

[22]  Land-use changes affecting Pulsatilla vulgaris in England , 1968 .

[23]  R. Carignan,et al.  Measurement of total dissolved phosphorus in small volumes of iron rich interstitial water , 1992, Aquatic Sciences.

[24]  Richard F. Ambrose,et al.  A Comparison of Remote Sensing and Ground‐Based Methods for Monitoring Wetland Restoration Success , 2003 .

[25]  Emily H Stanley,et al.  Effects of restoration and reflooding on soil denitrification in a leveed Midwestern floodplain. , 2007, Ecological applications : a publication of the Ecological Society of America.

[26]  D. Engle,et al.  Development of a Grassland Integrity Index Based on Breeding Bird Assemblages , 2006, Environmental monitoring and assessment.

[27]  Jeffrey P Hoover.  Water depth influences nest predation for a wetland-dependent bird in fragmented bottomland forests , 2006 .

[28]  Meng Yi,et al.  Trends of soil organic matter turnover in the salt marsh of the Yangtze River estuary , 2007 .

[29]  S. Fennessy,et al.  Review of: Restoration of aquatic ecosystems: Science, technology, and public policy: Committee on Restoration of Aquatic Ecosystems-Science, Technology, and Public Policy, National Research Council. National Academy Press, Washington, DC , 1993 .

[30]  W. Mitsch,et al.  Restoration of wetlands in the Mississippi–Ohio–Missouri (MOM) River Basin: Experience and needed research , 2006 .

[31]  A. Tavili,et al.  Effective environmental factors in the distribution of vegetation types in Poshtkouh rangelands of Yazd Province (Iran) , 2004 .

[32]  W. Thogmartin,et al.  Influence of land use and climate on wetland breeding birds in the Prairie Pothole region of Canada , 2007 .

[33]  Bibit Halliday Traut,et al.  The role of coastal ecotones: a case study of the salt marsh/upland transition zone in California , 2005 .

[34]  H. Bruelheide,et al.  Correspondence of the fine-scale spatial variation in soil chemistry and the herb layer vegetation in beech forests , 2005 .

[35]  W. Horwath,et al.  Mineral control of organic carbon mineralization in a range of temperate conifer forest soils , 2006 .

[36]  Joan L. Walker,et al.  Approximating Nature's Variation: Selecting and Using Reference Information in Restoration Ecology , 1997 .

[37]  Susan M. Galatowitsch,et al.  Effects of water regime and competition on the establishment of a native sedge in restored wetlands , 2000 .

[38]  C. Hoffmann,et al.  Re-establishing freshwater wetlands in Denmark , 2007 .

[39]  Berit Arheimer,et al.  Modelling nitrogen removal in potential wetlands at the catchment scale , 2002 .

[40]  A. P. Schwab,et al.  A new soil test for simultaneous extraction of macro‐ and micro‐nutrients in alkaline soils , 1977 .

[41]  Joy B. Zedler,et al.  Handbook for Restoring Tidal Wetlands , 2000 .

[42]  K. Sahrawat.  Organic matter accumulation in submerged soils , 2003 .

[43]  R. Marrs,et al.  Influence of environmental factors on the growth and interactions between salt marsh plants: effects of salinity, sediment and waterlogging , 2000 .

[44]  A. Carpentier,et al.  Plant-water regime management in a wetland: consequences for a floating vegetation-nesting bird, whiskered tern Chlidonias hybridus , 2006, Biodiversity & Conservation.

[45]  Qin Pei,et al.  Wetland creation for rare waterfowl conservation: A project designed according to the principles of ecological succession , 2001 .

[46]  Hari Eswaran,et al.  Organic Carbon in Soils of the World , 1993 .

[47]  M. Favero,et al.  Recreational activities affecting the habitat use by birds in Pampa’s wetlands, Argentina: Implications for waterbird conservation , 2008 .

[48]  D. A. Keith,et al.  Measuring Success: Evaluating the Restoration of a Grassy Eucalypt Woodland on the Cumberland Plain, Sydney, Australia , 2003 .

[49]  R. Marrs,et al.  Effects of restoration treatments on the diaspore bank under dense Pteridium stands in the UK , 2003 .

[50]  F. Novo,et al.  High-intensity versus low-intensity restoration alternatives of a tidal marsh in Guadalquivir estuary, SW Spain , 2007 .

[51]  F. Short,et al.  Using Functional Trajectories to Track Constructed Salt Marsh Development in the Great Bay Estuary, Maine/New Hampshire, U.S.A. , 2002 .

[52]  J. Zedler,et al.  Progress in wetland restoration ecology. , 2000, Trends in ecology & evolution.

[53]  J. Delfino,et al.  Water budget and cost-effectiveness analysis of wetland restoration alternatives: a case study of Levy Prairie, Alachua County, Florida , 2004 .

[54]  M. Taniguchi,et al.  Nitrate pollution of groundwater in the Yellow River delta, China , 2007 .

[55]  Douglas A. Wilcox,et al.  A water-budget approach to restoring a sedge fen affected by diking and ditching , 2006 .

[56]  Alfred C. Redfield,et al.  Development of a New England Salt Marsh , 1972 .

[57]  R. Ambrose,et al.  Wintering Shorebird Assemblages and Behavior in Restored Tidal Wetlands in Southern California , 2007 .

[58]  D. Burdick,et al.  A Monitoring Protocol to Assess Tidal Restoration of Salt Marshes on Local and Regional Scales , 2002 .

[59]  P. A. Stevens,et al.  The restoration and re-creation of species-rich lowland grassland on land formerly managed for intensive agriculture in the UK , 2004 .

[60]  E. McCoy,et al.  Measuring the Success of Wildlife Community Restoration , 2002 .

[61]  Charles A. Simenstad,et al.  When is restoration not?: Incorporating landscape-scale processes to restore self-sustaining ecosystems in coastal wetland restoration , 2006 .

[62]  Mark D. Bertness,et al.  Plant zonation in low‐latitude salt marshes: disentangling the roles of flooding, salinity and competition , 2005 .

[63]  John B. Loomis,et al.  Measuring the total economic value of restoring ecosystem services in an impaired river basin: results from a contingent valuation survey , 2000 .

[64]  U. Grandin.  Short‐term and long‐term variation in seed bank/vegetation relations along an environmental and successional gradient , 2001 .

[65]  J. Teal,et al.  Ecological engineering, adaptive management, and restoration management in Delaware Bay salt marsh restoration , 2005 .

[66]  Huiping Lin,et al.  A multi-scale study on land use and land cover quality change: The case of the Yellow River Delta in China , 2002 .

[67]  C. Richardson,et al.  Hydrologic, Edaphic, and Vegetative Responses to Microtopographic Reestablishment in a Restored Wetland , 2005 .

[68]  Fayuan Wang,et al.  Arbuscular mycorrhizal status of wild plants in saline-alkaline soils of the Yellow River Delta , 2004, Mycorrhiza.

[69]  M. Chapman,et al.  Testing hypotheses about management to enhance habitat for feeding birds in a freshwater wetland. , 2001, Journal of environmental management.

[70]  F. Nydahl.  On the peroxodisulphate oxidation of total nitrogen in waters to nitrate , 1978 .

[71]  Susan M. Galatowitsch,et al.  The Vegetation of Restored and Natural Prairie Wetlands , 1996 .

[72]  Susan M. Galatowitsch,et al.  Effects of Phalaris arundinacea and nitrate-N addition on the establishment of wetland plant communities , 2002 .

[73]  H. Robertson,et al.  Plant Establishment from the Seed Bank of a Degraded Floodplain Wetland: A Comparison of Two Alternative Management Scenarios , 2007, Plant Ecology.

[74]  Roy A. Sanderson,et al.  Soil seed banks and the effects of meadow management on vegetation change in a 10‐year meadow field trial , 2002 .

[75]  B. E. Mahall,et al.  The Ecotone Between Spartina Foliosa Trin. and Salicornia Virginica L. in Salt Marshes of Northern San Francisco Bay: II. Soil Water and Salinity , 1976 .

[76]  L. M. Ellis.  Bird use of saltcedar and cottonwood vegetation in the Middle Rio Grande Valley of New Mexico, U.S.A.* , 1995 .

[77]  P. Mccormick,et al.  Hydrologic Regime Controls Soil Phosphorus Fluxes in Restoration and Undisturbed Wetlands , 2005 .

[78]  W. Silver,et al.  Dynamics of fine root carbon in Amazonian tropical ecosystems and the contribution of roots to soil respiration , 2006 .

[79]  K. Kindscher,et al.  Wetland Vegetation Response to the Restoration of Sheet Flow at Cheyenne Bottoms, Kansas , 2004 .

[80]  A. Grootjans,et al.  Restoration of Natural and Semi‐Natural Wetland Systems in Central Europe: Progress and Predictability of Developments , 2001 .

[81]  Mark A. Harwell,et al.  Modeling soil salinity distribution along topographic gradients in tidal salt marshes in Atlantic and Gulf coastal regions , 2007 .

[82]  A. Freedman,et al.  Environmental gradients, plant distribution, and species richness in arctic salt marsh near Prudhoe Bay, Alaska , 2004, Wetlands Ecology and Management.

[83]  A. Gilbert,et al.  From spatial models to spatial evaluation in the analysis of wetland restoration in the Vecht river basin , 2004 .

[84]  Mark J. Antos,et al.  Unauthorised human use of an urban coastal wetland sanctuary: Current and future patterns , 2007 .

[85]  W. Mitsch,et al.  Seasonal and storm event nutrient removal by a created wetland in an agricultural watershed , 2004 .

[86]  G. Cowie,et al.  Biochemical indicators of diagenetic alteration in natural organic matter mixtures , 1994, Nature.

[87]  B. A. Maurer,et al.  Geographic Range Fragmentation and Abundance in Neotropical Migratory Birds , 1993 .

[88]  C. Simenstad,et al.  Contrasting Functional Performance of Juvenile Salmon Habitat in Recovering Wetlands of the Salmon River Estuary, Oregon, U.S.A. , 2002 .

[89]  Maggi Kelly,et al.  Vegetation Colonization in a Restoring Tidal Marsh: A Remote Sensing Approach , 2008 .

[90]  S. Yong.  Characteristics of halophyte and associated soil along aggradational muddy coasts in Jiangsu Province , 2005 .

[91]  H. Fang,et al.  Georelational Analysis of Soil Type, Soil Salt Content, Landform, and Land Use in the Yellow River Delta, China , 2005, Environmental management.

[92]  Lynn Suer,et al.  Wetland ecological and compliance assessments in the San Francisco Bay Region, California, USA. , 2005, Journal of environmental management.

[93]  C. Polprasert,et al.  Role of plant uptake on nitrogen removal in constructed wetlands located in the tropics , 1997 .