Hydrology, sedimentation and mineralisation: A wetland ecology perspective
Arnab Majumdar, Anamika Shrivastava, Sneha Ray Sarkar, Sreehari Sathyavelu, Anil Barla, Sutapa Bose
Abstract
The recognition that freshwater wetlands are more than a transition zone between terrestrial and aquatic systems is not relatively recent. If wetlands were considered at all, they were treated as either wet versions of terrestrial vegetation by ecologists or the shallow portions of lakes and ponds by limnologists. Wetlands, as described in these pages are shown to be very much centres of hydrological and ecological importance in the landscape. For example, various spatial mapping approaches, hydrological models, ecological appraisals, water quality and biogeochemistry investigations that may direct towards understanding threats on wetlands posed by climate change and water imbalances, chemical contamination, land-use alterations and soil erosion. The hydrological features of a watershed are quite unique and important to water resources, biology, ecology and socioeconomic development in associated regions. Accounting dynamics, mixing, sediment regimes and morphological evolution in estuaries, sediment wetlands, a background can be established for developing monitoring strategies and commissioning of modelling studies to address immediate issues alongside long-term concerns about impacts of global change of wetland ecology.