ESRM 472 WETLAND ECOLOGY
EXAM REVIEW QUESTIONS
1. What has been the primary reason
for wetland loss in
2. How can ecological theory be used as a restoration tool?
3. What is the most critical physical condition impacting freshwater wetland restoration?
4. Set up an HGM (hydrogeomorphic functional evaluation method) spreadsheet comparing the functioning of a project wetland with the functioning of a restoration wetland.
5. Describe five different ecological functions of wetlands.
6. Name three factors which modify (make more severe; make less severe) the effects of waterlogging on plants and explain how each accomplishes the modification.
7. What happens to a plant when it is flooded?
8. Compare the way that roots experience flooding with the way that shoots experience flooding (assume that the flooding occurs to slightly above the soil surface, and the shoot is not covered).
9. What is ethylene and what does it do? How is it implicated in flooding damage to plants?
10. Name and explain four different mechanisms of flooding injury to plants.
11. What potentially damaging things occur when plants must respire anaerobically?
12. The effects of flooding on plants have a dynamic component; that is, they change over time. Can you explain what things change and how the changes impact plants?
13. Name some morphological changes which occur in plants subjected to flooding. What are the effects of these changes?
14. Why is ATP important to plants and how does flooding affect its production?
15. Why does root growth stop in a flooded plant?
16. What are aerenchyma, and where and how are they formed?
17. What happens to root permeability in flooded plants, and why?
18. What is the effect of flooding on plant nutrient uptake, and why?
19. What three kinds of messages do shoots and roots use to communicate during flooding, and what five kinds of substances are involved in the messages?
20. Explain three general effects that salinity has on plants.
21. What is osmotic potential? What is osmoregulation?
22. What are compatible osmoticants?
23. Plant cells may employ compartmentalization when dealing with high cellular solute concentrations. Can you explain?
24. Explain five sources of habitat diversity in coastal salt marshes.
25. Consequences to plants in saline environments include altered plant access to 1) nutrients, 2) salt, 3) water and 4) energy. Can you explain how access to each of these is modified and what the effects are on plants?
26. What are some morphological and physiological effects of elevated salinities on salt marsh plants?
27. What are some plant adaptations to existence in saline environments?
28. What is mangrove?
29. What are the characteristics of wastewater?
30. Compare facultative lagoons and wetlands as systems for the treatment of wastewater.
31. What are the goals of biological wastewater treatment?
32. What are the roles of micro-organisms in the treatment of wastewater?
33. What is the role of algae in facultative lagoons?
34. How does a floating aquatic system work?
35. What is the function of residence time in wastewater treatment?
36. How are pathogens removed from wastewater?
37. If you were going to sequence lagoon and wetland cells to treat wastewater, how would you set them up and why?
38. What is the best time to do the construction work for wetland restoration? What is the best time to do planting for a wetland restoration?
39. If you were doing site assessment for a proposed wetland restoration, what would be some important things to look at?
40. Under what kind of regulations have wetlands been managed in the U.S.?
41. The sequence of evaluation of a request for a permit under Section 404 of the Clean Water Act requires that the applicant consider three levels of action. Each action would result in greater impact on the wetland than the previous. What are the three levels of action?
42. If you were going to design a created wetland and wanted the wetland to remove sediment from the incoming water, what are two features you would want to include?
43. If you wanted a created wetland to remove phosphorus, what would be the best design approach?
44. Bio-engineering is a restoration tool. What specifically could you do with bio-engineering in a restoration project?
45. Describe a strategy for keeping invasive species away from a restored wetland during its construction.
46. In the design of wetlands for restoration, there are a number of features that you could include in the design to achieve each of seven different wetland functions (sediment removal, nutrient removal, flood attentuation, erosion prevention, recharge, primary productivity and habitat improvement). Name one design feature that you would want to see to improve each of these functions.