Wetlands: Challenges and Possibilities
Martin Lindner and Carsten Hobohm
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.
M. Lindner (*)
Department of Biology Education, Martin-Luther-University Halle-Wittenberg, Halle (Saale),
Germany
e-mail: martin.lindner@biodidaktik.uni-halle.de
C. Hobohm
Department of Ecology and Environmental Education, University of Flensburg (EUF),
Flensburg, Germany
© Springer Nature Switzerland AG 2021
C. Hobohm (ed.), Perspectives for Biodiversity and Ecosystems, Environmental
Challenges and Solutions, https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-030-57710-0_13
311
Martin Lindner and Carsten Hobohm
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.
M. Lindner (*)
Department of Biology Education, Martin-Luther-University Halle-Wittenberg, Halle (Saale),
Germany
e-mail: martin.lindner@biodidaktik.uni-halle.de
C. Hobohm
Department of Ecology and Environmental Education, University of Flensburg (EUF),
Flensburg, Germany
© Springer Nature Switzerland AG 2021
C. Hobohm (ed.), Perspectives for Biodiversity and Ecosystems, Environmental
Challenges and Solutions, https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-030-57710-0_13
311