The Importance of Wetlands in Ecosystem Services: with Special Attention on Flood Attenuation, Carbon Sequestration, Hydrogeology, Water Quality, Biodiversity, and Social and Local Values

The Importance of Wetlands in Ecosystem Services: with Special Attention on Flood Attenuation, Carbon Sequestration, Hydrogeology, Water Quality, Biodiversity, and Social and Local Values

Christie Vandervlist Daigneault, Mitchell Hall, Kaileigh Nichols

The Muskoka Watershed Council

Tom Whillans, Trent School of the Environment

2012

TP-644

Muskoka

Environmental Science
Hydrology
Wetlands

This paper is designed to value wetland ecosystem services in Eco Region 5e. The basic geography of this region is fairly clustered around Georgian Bay, and includes the following major areas: Sault Ste Marie, Sudbury, North Bay, Parry Sound, Algonquin Park, Pembroke, Bancroft, and Manitoulin Island (Chambers et al, 1997). This entire area is predominantly considered the southern part of the Canadian Shield. However due to the constraints of time the focus is on the Muskoka Area. Some ecosystem services provided by wetlands that are considered to be valuable include: gas regulation; climate regulations; disturbance regulation; and water filtration. Recommendations for further study include having accurate mapping of the wetlands, by type and area; creating a wetland valuation system like the one created for Southern Ontario, that gives a value to each process; and, finally, to address how different wetlands function in regard to each of the processes. This will reduce the variability seen in ecosystem valuation.