| Course ID: | WASR 4400-4400L. 3 hours. 2 hours lecture and 3 hours lab per week. |
| Course Title: | Introduction to Wetlands |
Course
Description: | Introduction to wetland systems and regulation. Wetland geomorphology, hydrology, soils, chemistry, vegetation, animal communities, response to land management, functional description, and legal considerations. Practical training in measuring and characterizing wetland features as well as delineating wetland boundaries and assessing wetland function. |
| Oasis Title: | Introduction to Wetlands |
| Prerequisite: | CRSS(WASR) 1020 or CRSS(FANR) 3060 or FANR 3200W or ECOL 3500 or ECOL 3505H or ECOL 1000 or ECOL 1000E or ECOL 1000H |
Semester Course
Offered: | Offered spring semester every odd-numbered year. |
| Grading System: | A-F (Traditional) |
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| Course Objectives: | See course description and outline. |
| Topical Outline: | Topics
1. Introduction
What is a wetland?
Why do they deserve a course?
Overview of wetland regulation and history
2. Wetland formation and occurrence (hydrology and geomorphology of wetlands)
3. Wetland types
4. Wetland hydraulics
5. Hydric soils
6. Wetland chemistry
7. Wetland ecology
Vegetation
Algal and phytoplankton primary production
Invertebrates
Vertebrates
Herps
Birds
Mammals
8. Wetland interactions with adjacent upland/riparian areas
9. Impacts of land use change
10. Artificial wetlands for water quality treatment
11. Wetland regulation
Wetland usage and loss
Wetland laws
Wetland classification schemes
Wetland functional assessment
12. Wetland mitigation
13. Student presentations of papers, case studies
Laboratories:
Install piezometers or water level recorders
Identify wetland contributing areas, describe wetland hydrology and hydraulics
Classify soils in and around wetlands
Classify vegetation in transects
Divide wetlands into vegetative communities
Delineate wetland boundaries
Sample invertebrate community
Sort invertebrate samples
Bird survey
Measure basic wetland chemistry
Conduct a functional assessment |