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Wetlands: Challenges and Possibilities

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Perspectives for Biodiversity and Ecosystems

Part of the book series: Environmental Challenges and Solutions ((ECAS))

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Abstract

This contribution deals with recent challenges and prospective developments of mires, bogs, fens and swamps, and of standing and running waters. We ask the question how it might be possible to reduce the anthropogenic pressure to relating habitats and characteristic biodiversity in a long-term perspective.

The most important threats for wetland habitats are pollution, e.g. by use of pesticides, waste of nutrients, metal, and pharmaceuticals, natural system modification, i.e. modification of flow and geomorphology by settlements, establishment of industries, drainings, building of dams, barrages and hydroelectric power stations, biological resource use, e.g. fishery and hunting, invasive and other problematic species, genes and diseases, and the influence of aquaculture and agriculture, partially over long distance.

Various solutions for the management of wetlands with respect to environmental conditions and natural processes have been published and are currently applied. These are e.g. dismantling of dams or disclaimer of new dams and barrages, regulation of water withdrawal for human use, incentives for the reduction of the use of pesticides, fertilizers and other groups of chemicals, establishment of buffer zones, enlargement and establishment of new nature reserves, and many more. However, the influence of moderate use of relating habitats e.g. by domestic grazing or removal of trees should be monitored with a focus on the hydrologic conditions and species conservation of endemic, rare and threatened biota.

We hypothesize that the effectiveness of restoration and protection measures might seriously increase if the focus is widened and especially border and transition zones between agricultural land, industrial area or settlement and wetland are included in monitoring and nature conservation programmes.

The reduction of a short-term profit at local scales caused by regulations can result in increasing long-term profit at larger spatial scales because self-regulated biodiversity and food webs may lead to higher output of ecosystem services, e.g. products of fishing.

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. Department of Biology Education, Martin-Luther-University Halle-Wittenberg, Halle (Saale), Germany

    Martin Lindner

  2. Department of Ecology and Environmental Education, University of Flensburg (EUF), Flensburg, Germany

    Carsten Hobohm

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  1. Martin Lindner
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  2. Carsten Hobohm
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Correspondence to Martin Lindner .

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Editors and Affiliations

  1. Department of Ecology and Environmental Education, University of Flensburg (EUF), Flensburg, Schleswig-Holstein, Germany

    Carsten Hobohm

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Lindner, M., Hobohm, C. (2021). Wetlands: Challenges and Possibilities. In: Hobohm, C. (eds) Perspectives for Biodiversity and Ecosystems. Environmental Challenges and Solutions. Springer, Cham. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-030-57710-0_13

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