Ecological restoration of rich fens in Europe and North America: from trial and error to an evidence-based approach.
Fens represent a large array of ecosystem services, including the highest biodiversity found among wetlands, hydrological services, water purification and carbon sequestration. Land-use change and drainage has severely damaged or annihilated these services in many parts of North America and Europe; restoration plans are urgently needed at the landscape level. We review the major constraints on the restoration of rich fens and fen water bodies in agricultural areas in Europe and disturbed landscapes in North America: (i) habitat quality problems: drought, eutrophication, acidification, and toxicity, and (ii) recolonization problems: species pools, ecosystem fragmentation and connectivity, genetic variability, and invasive species; and here provide possible solutions. We discuss both positive and negative consequences of restoration measures, and their causes. The restoration of wetland ecosystem functioning and services has, for a long time, been based on a trial-and-error approach. By presenting research and practice on the restoration of rich fen ecosystems within agricultural areas, we demonstrate the importance of biogeochemical and ecological knowledge at different spatial scales for the management and restoration of biodiversity, water quality, carbon sequestration and other ecosystem services, especially in a changing climate. We define target processes that enable scientists, nature managers, water managers and policy makers to choose between different measures and to predict restoration prospects for different types of deteriorated fens and their starting conditions.
Department of Aquatic Ecology & Environmental Biology, Institute for Water and Wetland Research, Radboud University Nijmegen, Heyendaalseweg 135, 6525 AJ, Nijmegen, The Netherlands.
Leon P M
LP
Lamers
Melanie A
MA
Vile
Ab P
AP
Grootjans
Mike C
MC
Acreman
Rudy
R
van Diggelen
Martin G
MG
Evans
Curtis J
CJ
Richardson
Line
L
Rochefort
Annemieke M
AM
Kooijman
Jan G M
JG
Roelofs
Alfons J P
AJ
Smolders
D044822:Biodiversity; D052918:Environmental Restoration and Remediation / Q000379:methods*; D005060:Europe; D009656:North America; D053833:Wetlands
agriculture; carbon sequestration; climate change; ecosystem services; eutrophication; hydrology; nature management; peatland; wetland