Developing wetland inventories in southern Africa: A review

The status of wetland inventory effort and availability of maps and other data sources is reviewed for the ten countries of southern Africa: Angola, Bostwana, Lesotho, Malawi, Mozambique, Namibia, South Africa, Swaziland, Zambia and Zimbabwe. The aims and strategies for inventory are discussed and the main survey methods compared. Prior to commissioning new inventory work careful collation of existing maps and imagery is recommended together with targeting of strategic inventory at Province level, reserving high resolution effort only for certain important sites.     

Wetland classification and inventory: A summary

Regional, national and local wetland classifications have been developed and successfully applied. These have invariably been orientated towards conservation and management goals, and the information used to assess wetland loss or to assign management priorities. Existing national and regional classification systems have not only been useful, but they provide an essential base for developing an international system. At the international level, differences among existing systems in the definition of a wetland and how wetland types are defined assume great importance and need to be resolved. Classification is an essential prerequisite for wetland inventory. A number of international inventories have been undertaken, although these have not generally utilized the available high technology and data storage systems available through remote sensing and geographic information systems. More extensive international inventories will require standardization of techniques for data collection, storage and dissemination. A minimum data set needs to be defined with standards for data accuracy. An international committee under the auspices of an international agency (e.g. IWRB, Ramsar Bureau, IUCN) needs to be established to develop an international classification system and guidelines for carrying out a complete inventory of the world's wetlands.     

US Fish and Wildlife Service 1979 wetland classification: A review

In 1979 the US Fish and Wildlife Service published and adopted a classification of wetlands and deepwater habitats of the United States. The system was designed for use in a national inventory of wetlands. It was intended to be ecologically based, to furnish the mapping units needed for the inventory, and to provide national consistency in terminology and definition. We review the performance of the classification after 13 years of use. The definition of wetland is based on national lists of hydric soils and plants that occur in wetlands. Our experience suggests that wetland classifications must facilitate mapping and inventory because these data gathering functions are essential to management and preservation of the wetland resource, but the definitions and taxa must have ecological basis. The most serious problem faced in construction of the classification was lack of data for many of the diverse wetland types. Review of the performance of the classification suggests that, for the most part, it was successful in accomplishing its objectives, but that problem areas should be corrected and modification could strengthen its utility. The classification, at least in concept, could be applied outside the United States. Experience gained in use of the classification can furnish guidance as to pitfalls to be avoided in the wetland classification process.The US Government's right to retain a non-exclusive, royalty free licence in and to any copyright is acknowledged.     

我国湿地评价研究综述

湿地评价研究已成为新世纪湿地科学前沿研究领域的热点问题。近年来 ,随着对湿地认识的不断深入 ,我国湿地评价研究内容不断丰富 ,研究水平提高幅度较大 ,研究方法由过去仅局限于湿地特征描述的定性评价 ,发展到湿地价值评价、湿地生态系统健康评价、湿地环境影响评价以及湿地生态风险评价等方面 ,3S技术和数学方法在湿地评价研究中也得到了较为广泛的应用。今后我国湿地评价研究应侧重于湿地评价理论、湿地评价指标体系和模型、湿地对比评价研究、退化湿地评价研究、湿地与全球气候变化以及新技术和新方法应用等方面     

The current status of European wetland inventories and classifications

The status of wetland inventory and classification is considered for 44 European countries, as well as for the continent as a whole. Data and information were obtained from questionnaires compiled by the International Waterfowl and Wetland Research Bureau, the MedWet sub-project on inventory and monitoring, and the Ramsar Bureau. Nine European countries have national wetland inventories, and 32 have inventories of sites of international importance listed under the Ramsar Convention. There has been a trend in producing regional or continental inventories for wetlands that are important as waterfowl habitat. There is an urgent need to produce wetland inventories for all European countries. The Ramsar database takes into consideration hydrological and economic wetland values, as well as ecological ones. The Ramsar classification lists a total of 35 wetland types, and is sufficiently flexible that it could be used for classifying European wetlands at the national scale.     

A review of bioinformatics degrees in Australia

Bioinformatics has been a hot topic in Australia's biotechnology circles for the past five years. As with biotechnology in the 1990s, there has been a sudden increase in the number of Bioinformatics undergraduate degrees. For students in the 2005 intake there are six undergraduate Bioinformatics degrees to choose from and another five Bioinformatics streams within a Bachelor of Science degree. The courses vary from three to four years of full-time study. This report aims at dissecting each of these degrees to determine where the differences lie, to give the prospective students an idea as to which degree suits their career goals and to give an overview of the pedagogy of Australian bioinformatics education.     

Evaluating wetland losses with hydric soils

A study was conducted to determine if surveys of hydric soils could be used as a historic baseline to estimate wetland losses. Soils were digitized from county soil surveys and wetlands were digitized from National Wetlands Inventory (NWI) maps for two adjacent coastal counties in North Carolina. The two counties were located on the lower Atlantic Coastal Plain and have extensive areas of hydric soils, as much as 96% of the land surface area. Using hydric soils from soil surveys and wetlands from NWI maps, wetland losses since settlement were calculated to be 65% for Washington County and 38% for Tyrrell County. The NWI wetlands were compared to a mid-1950s wetlands survey to determine recent wetland losses. A large percentage of the wetland losses occurred between 1950 and 1980 for Washington County compard to Tyrrell County. Wetland losses for both counties occurred primarily on mineral hydric soils and the current wetlands distribution corresponded well with the distribution of organic soils.     

Use of barrier pitfall traps to enhance inventory surveys of epigaeic Coleoptera

Comparisons of catches of beetles in standard pitfall traps and various patterns of barrier pitfall traps were made in open grassy woodland in Victoria, Australia, in late summer. Comparative results are given for abundance and morphospecies richness of total Coleoptera, and for Carabidae as a more limited focal group. For both categories, in three separate trials (1) use of 120 cm barriers gave larger catches than standard traps (1360 individual beetles [503 Carabidae] in barrier traps, 363 [57 Carabidae] in standard traps, pool of 129 morphospecies); (2) catch sizes increased almost 5-fold with increasing barrier length (0, 30, 60, 120 cm) (61 morphospecies); and (3) use of a five-trap system with barriers gave higher numbers (3344 and 2303 total beetles, 345 and 135 Carabidae) than the same configuration without barriers (92 morphospecies).     

Aspects of wetland law and policy in Australia

The existence of laws and policies in Australia that affect wetland protection and rehabilitation has been ascertained. There is a diverse range of environmental legislation, primarily at the state level, that potentially affects wetlands. There are environmental planning instruments made under legislation in New South Wales and Western Australia, which are specifically directed to the protection of wetlands. These are legislative-backed mechanisms providing legal protection to wetlands. Whilst there is no national policy on wetlands, a draft Commonwealth policy has been circulated and is expected to be released in final form in February 1997. New South Wales is the only state with a current wetlands policy, whilst some other states have draft policies. These policies do refer to wetland rehabilitation. The present federal government indicated it wished to finalize a national wetlands policy in the lead up to its election in March 1996. This is not likely to happen soon and any national policy will probably be an implementation framework for the policies of individual governments. It is suggested that a commonwealth policy, whilst useful in providing consistency in commonwealth government decision making affecting wetlands, does not go far enough. Given that only one state in Australia has a wetland policy, it may take the formulation of a national policy to get the remaining states and territories in Australia to finalize their own policies.     

Ecological significance and classification of Chinese wetlands

China supports a great variety of wetlands, including some of the most important in the world. However, an appropriate classification system applicable to all wetlands is not available. Based on a preliminary inventory, a new classification system for Chinese wetlands is proposed. This system classifies natural wetlands into three categories on the basis of their natural features and distribution: peatlands, coastal and estuarine wetlands, and riverine and lacustrine wetlands. Each category is divided into several sub-classes. The areal extent of wetlands in each Province has been estimated and their ecological importance assessed.     

A review of the ecological effects of river regulation in Australia

Responses to hydrologic change are an important theme in lotic ecology, and data for Australian rivers are accumulating in a rapid, butad hoc manner. Thia paper arranges recent contributions according to the major drainage divisions, which provide reasonably coherent environmental units. The east coastal rivers are exploited for storage, power generation and waste disposal, and Tasmanian rivers are regulated to serve hydro-electric power schemes. Most information refers to the Murray-Darling river system, which supplies irrigated agriculture in semi-arid inland areas of S.E. Australia, and is intensively regulated by dams, weirs and barrages. The Murray's flows are over-committed, if variability is taken into account, and there are environmental problems (e.g. erosion and salinity) associated with irrigation. The effects of regulation are seen also in the changed distributions of plants and animals associated with the Murray and its floodplain. In Australia the national effort is uncoordinated because research and management are developing independently of one another. Ecologists must become involved in the planning and implementation of strategies that are consistent, as far as possible, with offstream and instream needs.     

A review of the Cambrian biostratigraphy of South Australia

Cambrian rocks in South Australia occur in the Stansbury, Arrowie, eastern Officer and Warburton Basins. The succession in the Stansbury and Arrowie Basins can be divided into three sequence sets (supersequences), 1, 2 and 3. Sequence set 1 can be divided into five third-order sequences: 1.0, 1.1A, 1.1B, 1.2 and 1.3. Trilobites from the Stansbury and Arrowie Basins are restricted largely to the lower part of the succession. Four trilobite zones are recognized: Abadiella huoi (latest Atdabanian–earliest Botoman), Pararaia tatei, Pararaia bunyerooensis and Pararaia janeae Zones (all Botoman). Trilobites higher in the succession are known from only a few horizons and in part correlate with the upper Lower Cambrian Lungwangmiaoan Stage of China, equivalent to the top Toyonian. Pagetia sp. has been reported in the Coobowie Formation of the Stansbury Basin, thus suggesting an early Middle Cambrian age.The Cambrian faunas of the Warburton Basin range in age from early Middle Cambrian (Late Templetonian) to very Late Cambrian, although the richest faunal assemblages are late Middle Cambrian (Ptychagnostus punctuosus to Goniagnostus nathorsti Zones). Conodonts, including Cordylodus proavus, occur in a Datsonian fauna.The Arrowie Basin contains the most complete and best studied archaeocyath succession in the Australia–Antarctica region. The Warriootacyathus wilkawillensis, Spirillicyathus tenuis and Jugalicyathus tardus Zones from the lower Wilkawillina Limestone (Arrowie Basin) and equivalents are correlated with the Atdabanian. Botoman archaeocyathids occur higher in the Wilkawillina Limestone. The youngest (Toyonian) archaeocyath fauna in Australia occurs in the Wirrealpa Limestone (Arrowie Basin).Brachiopods and molluscs of the Arrowie and Stansbury Basins can be divided into four biostratigraphic assemblages. Several informal Early Cambrian SSF biostratigraphic assemblages are recognized. Probable tabulate-like corals occur in the Botoman Moorowie Formation. Seven informal acritarch assemblages occur in the Early Cambrian of the Stansbury and Arrowie Basins. Trace fossils may mark the Precambrian–Cambrian boundary. Only two of several tuffaceous horizons from the Stansbury and Arrowie Basins have been dated (i) a date of 522.0 ± 2.1 Ma from the Heatherdale Shale of the Stansbury Basin, about 400 m above latest Atdabanian archaeocyathids and (ii) a date of 522.0 ± 1.8 Ma from the lower part of the Billy Creek Formation in the Arrowie Basin. Neither date is regarded as reliable.     

A functional classification of wetland plants

Abstract. In this paper we review the search for guilds in plant communities, and provide a summary of the process, emphasizing five steps: (1) defining function, (2) selecting traits which reflect function, (3) screening for those traits, (4) constructing trait matrices, and (5) grouping species according to these traits. We illustrate this process for wetland plant species based upon a matrix of 27 traits and 43 species from across eastern North America. The 43 species were selected to represent the widest range of life history types possible as well as both common species and nationally rare or endangered species. We found three main functional groups: ruderals, matrix and interstitial species, which we subdivide into a total of seven guilds. The growing number of such studies in the literature suggest that this may be an expedient measure for conservation biology and a promising one for predictions.     

Building a national wetland inventory: a review and roadmap to move forward

An inventory is internationally recognised as a key tool for informing policy, management and conservation of wetlands. Despite national, state and territory initiatives a comprehensive Australian wetland inventory still does not exist. The primary data requirements for a national wetland inventory are standardised mapping of wetland extent and attribution of typology. Some Australian jurisdictions have ongoing and regularly updated wetland mapping programs that could be consistent with a national inventory framework, whereas others have outdated or scattered information and data. Data requirements for wetland inventories have been reviewed previously, but there have been several recent improvements in technology and available information since those reviews were completed. The focus of this paper is to update previous reviews by outlining the recent opportunities that have emerged, and present a roadmap to support implementation of a jurisdictional wetland inventory program. We applied the process to the Lachlan River catchment in New South Wales, demonstrating the value and relevancy of the roadmap for inventory development. The need for standardised jurisdictional wetland inventories is the first step to their integration into a national wetland inventory. The roadmap and frameworks developed here can guide the development of other programs to overcome impediments and support development of a national wetland inventory. This tool would ultimately support the maintenance, protection and restoration of wetlands at a national level.     

Ecological significance and commercial harvesting of drifting and beach-cast macro-algae and seagrasses in Australia: a review

This review provides an overview of aspects of the ecology of drifting and beach-cast macroalgae and marine angiosperms in respect to present and potential commercial use of that resource in Australia. It sets the scene with sections on industries that utilise macro-algae and seagrasses, the ecology of littoral and nearshore sublittoral ecosystems and the processes of deposition of beach-cast macro-algae and seagrasses on beaches. It then describes the major economic macro-algae and seagrasses that occur as beach-cast wrack, with an emphasis on known information on habitat distribution, geographical range, and harvesting issues. Gaps in scientific knowledge are pointed out. The priority areas of future research were found to be: • The importance of beach accumulations of macro-algae and seagrasses on feeding and nesting shorebirds; • Whether available resource allows for ecologically and economically sustainable harvesting; • A survey of present and potential commercial macro-algae and seagrasses: studying biomass, density and annual production rates, interannual variability of recruitment into living stands, the effect of harvesting on trophodynamics and community structure and the stability of the resource base for economically sustainable harvesting; • An assessment of the importance of wrack in recycling nutrients and detritus to nearshore coastal ecosystems at wider geographical scales than previous work. This research should assess the dependence of offshore production on nutrients and detritus that are broken down in beachwracks. This revised version was published online in August 2006 with corrections to the Cover Date.     

Total economic value of wetland conservation in Sri Lanka identifying use and non-use values

In tropical regions, mangroves, clean (unpolluted) water-bodies and fish are important aspects of wetland areas, which are considered as the basic requirement for livelihood improvement in local communities. Particularly, their conservation is very important to both inland as well as inshore fisheries. However, conservation of such areas is dependent on the perceptions of key stakeholders in the area. A novel approach of a one and one-half bound based contingent valuation method (CVM) was implemented to measure the stakeholder willingness to pay (WTP) towards the conservation of fish, mangroves and water in a Sri Lankan wetland area. Estimated median WTP is Rs. 264.26, which is thought reliable when considering average income in the community. The analytic hierarchy process (AHP) was used to separate use and non-use values from the total value. Results show that non-use values are a significant component in the elicited WTP value, of between 45-55%. In the past such commodities have been assigned zero or low values due to difficulties involved in assigning economic values.     

Early Childhood Music Education in Australia: A Snapshot

Policy for early childhood music education (birth to eight years of age) in Australia covers a complex and diverse range of curriculum guidelines and legislation relating to the contexts of day care, preschool, and the early years of school. Australian models and policies vary from state to state and according to setting. Furthermore, early childhood education is constantly changing and evolving, responding to new practices, altered government priorities and funding, and community needs. In this article, the author aims to provide a snapshot of the situation by reviewing and analyzing educational policies, teacher training, and providers of early childhood music programs as well as suggesting some future directions.     

Trends in Australian wetland rehabilitation

This paper summarizes trends in Australian wetland rehabilitation on the basis of responses to a questionnaire from sixty-nine rehabilitation projects and a literature review. Project sizes ranged from 0.4 to 110,000 ha. Costs ranged from A$6 to 70,000 ha^–1 yr^–1, with most projects costing less than A$1,000 ha^–1 yr^–1 and with larger projects generally costing less per area than smaller projects. The oldest project began in 1963, but most projects began between 1990 and 1996. The most commonly cited dominant plant genera in rehabilitation projects were Eucalyptus, Melaleuca, Muehlenbeckia, Juncus, Avicennia, and Typha. Filling and draining and altered hydrology were the most commonly cited impacts that led to a need for rehabilitation, while excavation and planting were the most commonly cited rehabilitation methods. About 65% of projects undertake rehabilitation methods that address the causes of impacts. Habitat improvement was the most commonly stated objective in wetland rehabilitation. Of the projects that supported monitoring programs, fewer than 25% appeared to monitor variables that were closely linked to project goals. Thirty-six projects reported involvement in research other than monitoring, with vegetation research most frequently cited. Most projects encouraged some level of community involvement. Wetland rehabilitation in Australia could benefit from a centralized register of projects and a library of rehabilitation literature, including government and in-house reports.